Tsuki Kizuato Senshi
by Der Schatten
Summary: Xena tosses Gabrielle off the cliff in "Bitter Suite" in a lust for revenge, and this killed the innocent bard that she secretly loved. Years later, she would stare down the harden eyes of a warrior that has immense feelings towards the Warrior Princess.
1. Chapter 1: The Toss of Consequence

Tsuki Kizuato Senshi

Summary: Xena tosses Gabrielle off the cliff in "Bitter Suite" in a lust for revenge, and this killed the innocent bard that she secretly loved. Years later, she would stare down the harden eyes of a warrior that has immense feelings towards the Warrior Princess.

**Chapter 1: The Toss of Consequence **

A horse was galloping across the green fields with her rider on top of her making loud war cries. Behind the mare was a female body in now dirty/bloody white robes being hastily dragged across the valley by the horse and rider.

The rider was a dominant Warrior Princess extracting revenge for her son by taking it out on the one person who caused it to happen. She did not care for anything else but sorrow she had for her lost son and the destruction of the bard who was being drag behind the warrior's horse.

After a long journey across the Greek countryside the story teller was feeling pain in every part of her body and was dropping in and out of consciousness. This female was feeling the grip of fear all around her not knowing whether she would survive this torture. She hoped that the warrior's lust for revenge wouldn't mean the end of her life.

The mare neared an edge of a cliff which caught the attention of the vengeful rider. The warrior slowed down and looked over the edge of the cliff. A sadistic grin grew across her face as she turned around and grabbed the bloody person she used to call friend, and used to care for more deeply than she ever admitted, off of the ground. The stronger woman carried the Amazon Queen towards the edge of the cliff and then lifted her up above her shoulders.

The smaller woman was just starting to regain some form of consciousness and felt the pain she had before. With her own eyes she saw the edge of the cliff before her and felt strong but soft hands on her back. Suddenly she realized what she was happening, even though she did not believe it. The queen hoped that her friend and person she had long since been deeply infatuated with would not commit this act, since she was too weak from being dragged to do anything to protect herself.

The Warrior belted out loudly so the whole world could hear her victory, "Vengeance!"

Seconds later, she tossed the smaller woman off the cliff and towards the jagged rocks below. As woman in leather watch the battered body fall, she caught one final glimpse of the innocent and gentle green eyes that she had known to love.

Shock was ripping through her body as decent began, she could not believe that the person she trusted the most would do this. The sovereign felt and instant feeling of betrayal as her plunge continued downward. She had given up everything for the woman above her; her family, her friends, her dreams being a great bard, her blood innocence, and her daughter. For what, to be killed for her relatively small mistake compared to her former companion's many horrible actions against thousands. The bard saw the end nearing quickly as her face turned towards the conclusion of her fall. The woman felt ultimate anger for her former friend as her mind screamed '_I hate you Xena!'_ Suddenly, the blond haired woman felt massive pain around her right eye and suddenly everything went black.

The warrior turned around before the body hit the rocks, and felt a strong sense of pride in her vengeful actions as heard a large cracking noise from the body hitting the sharp rocks. With a vicious smile, she settled on her trusty mare and started to ride towards anyplace that was away from the cliff.

Not too long after she started to venture away from the sea, she immediately saw an image of the bard in her head. She saw the short queen in all her great beauty with the loving smile on her pure face. The Warrior Princess quickly shook her head to get rid of this thought as she believed at the moment that she had gotten her pleasurable justice. Little did she know that this feeling would soon change.

(XWP)

In a far distant land where sun would normally begin its rise upon the world, an older man sat near a lake with many cherry blossoms around him. The moon was in its crescent form above the lake as the night time wind was softly blowing on the elder's face. This timeworn man was wearing some sort of ceremonial robes and had just completed a ritual for some intent. This man sat quietly, waiting for a positive effect from this ritual.

There was a flash of light in front of him and the man looked up to see what was before him. He instantly saw beaten, bloodied female body floating towards him. The man got up to inspect the person that now was lying on the shore. He quickly noticed total amount of damage before him, and was pleased to see the person still alive. He made note that while small and broken the person had a strong will to survive, and the undeveloped muscles showed that there was an untapped ocean of strength in her body. The man knew that his special abilities would be able to heal a majority of the damage the body had taken.

The elder used forsaken powers to stare into the soul of the person before him and grinned deeply as he felt that the ritual was very successful. What he saw was a woman whose soul was lost and confused between the sides of good and evil. A woman who had feelings of betrayal and hatred towards a single person. A woman who had a warrior's mind that was young and still as raw as a wet piece of clay. Yes, this woman was everything he had hoped.

The only thing that could become a problem was this strong affectionate love for the betrayer he sensed in her heart, but he doubted that would matter since the betrayer was on the other side of the world right now and only need two summers to create the most feared warrior the world had ever seen. He put the body on a board near him to begin healing her broken bones with some dark magic. The elder man had a feeling of great success that his dark ambitions were about to be truly realized with the help from this blond by the name of Gabrielle.

**AN (Very Important That You Read): **

**Hi, my name is Der Schatten and I have written a couple of modest fanfics in my since I started in 2011. However, I am new to Xena stories because I recently got hooked on the show. So please take pity on me, as I am not a professional Xena fan and might miss one or two things from the show that most of you would be able remember without hesitation. Don't judge me too harshly on my writing because I am just a simple amateur writer doing this for fun.**

**These ANs are normal for me and I usually do this to thank the readers and help fill in anything that needs clearing up.**

**About this story, I want to for warn you all quickly that because of this moment several things will be changed or be omitted from the main Xena cannon that we all love. If the story does not show you these changes, I will mention these in ANs the story progresses. Two things thing I will quickly mention; one, Xena never went to Jappa in this story; two, Gabrielle's personality and actions will get very dark at points in this story. If this is going to make or break your reading experience I suggest you consider whether to continue reading/following this story now.**

**I am horrible at consistently updating a mutlichaper story at regular intervals, so you may see this story have two or three updates done within a weeks' span, while at other times it may take me a month to update (more often the latter). Please, bear with me as I also have a life like the rest of you and have to do other things.**

**Thank you for reading this far.**

**Keep on reading,**

**Der Schatten**


	2. Chapter 2, The Present: 29 Years Later

**Chapter 2, The Present: 29 Years Later**

The desert was an uncomfortable place for Xena, she hated everything about it. From the constant sweat you get from the heat to the sand that gets everywhere on your body, and she means _everywhere_.

Trying to ignore her uncomfortable itches, Xena turned her head towards her two companions behind her. The one good thing about this trip for Xena was the fact that she would be able to spend more time with her daughter, Eve, and hear more about the twenty-five years that she had missed out on. It had hurt Xena quite a bit that her daughter ended up growing up into a person exactly like she used to be, but was greatly happy that she was able to turn her daughter away from the path she was following as Livia.

At the beginning of this journey, Xena was hoping that the third companion, Virgil, would not make this trip hard because of Eve's deadly actions against his father. Though it seems that for a great part of this expedition Virgil had been able to keep his anger towards Xena's daughter to himself. In fact, the Warrior Princess had seen them have a cordial discussion between the two former enemies one night, which actually made the trip more relaxing.

The three traveler journey they were undertaking was a journey to a great temple dedicated to The Way of Love, which was deep inside former Persian territory. Based on Xena's rough remembrance of what the other two had told her, the temple was located on the site where Eli had done some magnificent act of love. Both Eve and Virgil individually had been wanted to go in dedication of their faith. Xena decided to take both of them to the temple on the same trip so she could protect both of them and would not have to make two long trips. What was a little weird is that the older warrior sensed some quiet concern from her daughter during the length of this trip, but scratched it off to the fact that Eve was only worried about how the Followers at the temple might react to the former Roman Warrior.

After reaching the top of a large sand dune, Xena gave a sigh of relief at sight in front of her

Xena turned to the other two and said, "Come on, there is village up ahead that we can spend the night at."

The other two also gave deep sighs as they did not want to spend another night sleeping in the harsh desert cold that came when the moon went up.

The trio reached the settlement that seemed to be thriving with people. They first went to the local stable to leave their horses that desperately needed some rest. When they were finished paying the owner of the stable, they immediately went tavern that was a head of them in order to satisfy their thirst and hunger. They quickly had found a table to sit at as the one of the workers took their orders. All of them immediately dug in to the food once it had arrived. Xena was the first to finish her food and started to watch the other two eat the rest of their meals.

As Xena watched her daughter eat, she was reminded of how her favorite the bard used to eat like when she was alive. Every day for the four years Xena had been awake for, the Warrior Princess thought about the beautiful blond and how much she still hated herself for killing her unrequited love. These feelings became more apparent once Eve was born because even when she was young her daughter would do something that would remind her of Gabrielle. Xena often wondered when Callisto reincarnated her soul into her daughter that she somehow taken some of the short bard's traits with her.

Eve noticed that her mother was inwardly very sad about something. She had often seen this carefully concealed expression on when around the older warrior.

"Mother, are you ok?" Eve asked in order to assess what was bothering brunette.

Xena stared back at her daughter and noticed that the once hungry Virgil was now paying attention to the conversation.

"Nothing's wrong, Eve." Xena said, trying to shrug off the topic.

The younger female knew that her mother might feel better discussing this topic and it wasn't good keeping deep feelings of sadness inside of her. So the warrior continued to question.

"You're lying mom, something is bothering you and it has been bothering you since I redeemed myself." Eve said.

"Eve, I am telling you that nothing is wrong." Xena said, while noticing that some person behind her was staring at the group from near the entrance.

Virgil cut in by saying, "I don't notice anything wrong with her."

Eve turned to Virgil and said, "I may have only been around her for six months, but she is my mother and I know that she tries to hide any feelings that she may have inside her."

Xena sensed that the person had left the tavern and looked back at her daughter.

"Alright, there is something, but it is not important." Xena said, continuing to try to end the conversation.

"Mom, this has been bothering you for a while now, so I can hardly believe that it is hardly important… Is it about me?" Eve said, staring at the older warrior.

Xena was caught off guard by the comment and said, "What?"

Eve continued, "Are you possibly disappointed in me and what I have done?"

"No! That's not it. Why would you ever even think that?" Xena asked with concern in your eyes.

"Well, what am I going to guess? You don't seem to want to tell me anything about yourself until it is absolutely necessary. A lot of the things I do know about you are related to me." Eve said with a bit of anger and hurt in her eyes.

Xena was taken a bit back by her daughter's emotions and was again reminded of the innocent bard. The warrior had remembered a few times that Gabrielle given similar reactions about her past, and normally the she would shrug the Amazon off because of how uncomfortable it was to discuss her tattered history. Xena looked at her daughter and wondered if this was one of the main reasons that her relationship with Gabrielle had drifted apart at the end. Based on what happened between her and the bard, Xena decided it was best for her relationship with her daughter to talk about this.

Xena sighed and said, "Ok Eve, there is something bothering me but it isn't about you."

Eve was surprised that her mother was opening up to her and said, "Well, what is it about?"

"As you may know, about seven years before you were born I was turned by Hercules to the side of good. While it is true, it is hardly known that I was still greatly confused about what I wanted in life and the temptations of darkness were still around me. All of that temptation changed by the most important people I met in my life, her name was Gabrielle." Xena spoke.

Xena now noticed that Virgil had the look in his eyes of trying to figure out some sort of puzzle he had long been working on.

Xena turned to Virgil and asked, "What do you know about her, Virgil? You seem to be know something about her."

Virgil answered, "I have heard her name before in discussions between my father and mother, but whenever I ask my mom about it she would tell me to go and talk to my dad. Dad was never helpful either and usually changed the subject."

"I am not surprised that Gabrielle was a very sensitive subject to your father. It was the main reason I lost a large part of your father's friendship that we had once developed." Xena said.

Both Eve and Virgil started to realize that this was also a sensitive subject to Xena as well and would have to trend lightly when talking to her.

Eve asked, "When did you meet Gabrielle? "

**(AN: Most of this from the next few paragraphs is rehashing the stories of the first episode and the Rift, with this story's ending of course. If you want to skim through the next bit, I would totally understand.)**

Xena said, "I was near the town of Potedia traveling to my home in Amphipolis and had run across a group of bandits taking some girls away from the town to sell as slaves. One of them was a smaller reddish-blond girl who was putting up a fight. I instantly decided to save the girls and returned them to their homes in Potedia. Once I had done that the reddish-blond girl was trying to convince me to take her with me. I had been able to keep her at her home when I left but that didn't stop her from following. When I had reached Amphipolis the townspeople including your grandma, were going to try to execute me, but that girl jumped in and talked the townsmen out of it. We both stayed in Amphipolis for a little while longer and I decided to allow Gabrielle to come with me. For the next few years she grew into an amazing woman with blond hair, who became a bard, an Amazon Queen, and my greatest friend. She had a way of helping me with my dark side just by being there. She would fight a long side me in defending the common person without killing anybody and afterword she would write about the adventures. This ended up earning her the name of the Battling Bard of Potedia."

Virgil said, "Wait, you mean that the name of my family's pub is not only named after you but her as well?"

Xena smiled a little and said, "Yep."

Virgil with shock in his voice said, "Wow."

Eve knew this wasn't the end of the story and asked, "What happened to her?"

Xena immediately felt sad and said, "About two and a half years since we started journeying together, we ran into a group of Roman soldiers taking some prisoners from Britannia back to Rome for execution. Well I learned that these soldiers were a part of Julius Caesar's army and killed them in anger to set free the prisoners. Caesar had once hurt me very deeply and I would do anything to hurt or damage him. So Gabrielle and I set off with the former prisoners to Britannia to help a former acquaintance of mine take on Caesar's forces. When we reach Britannia, I was too interested in my lust for vengeance against Caesar to realize what Gabrielle was doing."

"She had become friends with a man that had a different religion. Anything about other religions intrigued Gabrielle and she join him at attending a ceremony at his temple. During this ritual Gabrielle was tricked into giving up her blood innocence to an evil god named Dahok. I arrived soon after to find out what had happened to Gabrielle and found her distraught from her actions. Then Gabrielle was taken hold by this dark force and held in mid-air over a sanctuary. I tried to save her but was delayed by one of the temple servant who was given demonic powers. After I killed the servant, Gabrielle was being lowered from the dark force and I saved her from falling into a big hole. We left the area soon after but did not truly realize what had happened until a few weeks later."

"While we were traveling through Britannia, Gabrielle continuously would wake up to morning sickness. We found out soon enough that she had been impregnated by Dahok and her child was to be born in an unnaturally short amount of time. She gave birth a few days later to a baby girl she called Hope. At first the baby seemed normal enough, but the next morning I had found a warrior we were staying with was dead. The baby was the only one conscious and had blood on its hands. I became convinced that this child was an evil creature and should be killed. Gabrielle thought differently, so she took Hope and ran away from me. When I finally caught up to her, she had said that she killed Hope because she had attacked her. I had no reason not to believe her and trusted the fact that she killed the child."

Eve cut in and said, "Wait a minute, you told her that her child would have to die? That's really cruel, mom."

"You can't expect her to give up her child that easily, even if the child is incarnate from evil." Virgil said with a little bit of anger.

"I know and if I had to do it all again I would have approached the situation differently, it probably would have saved more lives." Xena said with remorse.

The two listeners remembering that the story was not complete.

Xena continued her tale, "A few months had passed and there was going to be a peace treaty signing between the centaurs in a centaur village. Gabrielle and I were invited to help keep peace at the meeting and also for a personal reason of mine. Eve, do you remember that I told you that you had an older brother who was raised by centaurs and lived before your time?"

Eve nodded her head remembering Xena briefly mention it a few months ago.

Xena started up again, "Well, Solan lived in this village with a centaur named Kaleipus, who had raised him from a little child. Your brother never knew that I was his mother and I was happy to spend some time with him. During the peace treaty, an evil god by the name of Callisto killed some warriors just outside of the village."

"Wait a minute wasn't my soul's last reincarnation named Callisto?" Eve interrupted with.

Xena remembered telling Eve a little bit about that as well and said, "Yes, and this was the same woman. However, after this time Callisto in her angelic form told me that someone had killed her and was mysteriously given purity by the Angels of Love."

Xena saw the worry on her daughter's face about her past life and said, "But don't worry, the soul that had reincarnated into you was pure and separated from her evil actions and thoughts."

After a second, Xena went back to the tale, "As I was saying, Callisto had caused some uproar in the village by her actions. A few hours later this little girl, who looked about eight years of age, came into the village saying that she had run away from Callisto. Callisto was after Solan, so he was taken to the cave by Kaleipus. However, Kaleipus was killed saving saving Solan from someone. We all suspected that Callisto killed him, and the centaurs were planning on leaving the area. Gabrielle and I were leaving as well and were going to take Solan with us. Before we left, Gabrielle had revealed to me that she had sent Hope down the river instead of killing her in Britannia, and said that she figured out that the little girl was Hope. I was intent on killing the child again to protect Solan and asked her where she last saw Hope. To my horror, she said that she left Hope in the same hut as Solan. I immediately rushed to the hut to find I was too late, Hope had killed Solan. Later that day, had found that had Gabrielle killed Hope by poisoning her water, but in my point of view the damage was done and there was no way to bring back Solan. Gabrielle and I went separate ways with anger towards her and quietly blaming her for the death of my son."

Xena went silent for a bit trying to figure out how she was going to say the next part without bursting into tears.

Virgil spoke up, "I am guessing that is not the end of the story?"

Xena took a deep breath and decided to push forward.

"You are correct. From what I had been able to find out later on, Gabrielle went to the Amazon village that she had been queen of and underwent a purification ritual. Joxer showed up to help Gabrielle with what had happened but had yet to see her. I on the other hand was on top of a cold mountain feeling sad about Solan's death and anger towards Gabrielle. Ares showed up and started to tempt me into taking my revenge, which in my weakest moment was easy to say yes to. I took the original Argo and raced towards the Amazon village with vengeance in mind. As I reached the village, several Amazons tried to stop me but were no match for me. Joxer was exiting a hut with Gabrielle and started to run away from me. I reached the both of them and knocked Joxer out quickly. I got Gabrielle's legs with a whip and started to drag her away from the village on another horse. This continued until I reached the edge of a cliff overhanging the sea. I took what now was a bloody and beaten Gabrielle and tossed her off the cliff to her death." Xena explained who now had tears visibly rolling down her eyes.

**(AN: For those of you who were skimming the overview of Xena episodes now would be a good time to start really reading again. I am sorry but I felt it was necessary to tell the entire story.)**

Eve was hugging her mom and crying with her too in now empty tavern. Virgil was a little angry at Xena for what she did but could obviously see that her own actions hurt herself deeply and that she regretted them.

Xena still had tears when saying, "It took me a week to truly realize what I did and I felt like I had wanted to die. I destroyed almost everything I had earned in my lust for vengeance. After several months of morning for her, I picked up my sword again and started fighting for the greater good. Joxer was angry and never wanted to see me again, until he found out about you, Eve. Then he started to travel with me again because he thought it was what Gabrielle would have wanted, but he never really forgave me. That was until we met again after my twenty-five year slumber and he told me it. It still never has made up for the fact that I killed my closest friend who put her entire trust in me. A day doesn't go bye when I don't think about her and feel remorse for my actions."

Eve continued to hold her mother as Xena began to cry again. This sad moment between Xena and Eve continued for several more minutes. Virgil had quite an awkward position because he was not as emotionally attached to Gabrielle but he did notice a few things in this moment. He saw Xena, a woman who was strong enough to fight forty legions of Romans, crying for the intimate friend she had regrettably killed and how much this pained her. Then there was Eve, who was crying for the pain of regret her mother still held. Virgil then thought back upon his father's sad smile he would give him any time that he would ask the old warrior about Gabrielle and finally getting some understanding what his dad was feeling at those times.

The tears from the two women soon dried up and the group realized it was already night fall. All members were tired from the long day and needed to find a place to stay at for the night. It didn't take long before the trio had gotten two rooms, one for the mother and daughter with another for the only boy in the group, at the tavern.

Xena got into the bed after Eve and laid down facing her daughter's sleeping form, which she silently thanked Eli for her wonderful girl. Then the warrior rolled to the other side where nobody was and thought about the beautiful bard as sleep took her.

(XWP)

A man on a horse was arriving at a tented settlement in the night. His horse slowed down once inside the settlement and rode the horse towards one of the tents with a guard outside. After getting off the horse, the man moved towards the entrance of the tent.

The guard recognized the man and said, "How goes it today, Rafeeq?"

"Aasim my friend, Eli has smiled his face with a good day, but I have concerning news for her and must see her immediately." Rafeeq replied to the man.

"It better be important, she asked not to disturbed." Aasim said in warning.

"I believe this information needs to reach her ears now." Rafeeq said before entering the tent.

Upon entering the tent, it was not hard for the man to see noticeable features in the place. There was candles light throughout the entire place. A metal rimed sugegasa (a sun hat) hanging off a samurai sword in its sheath with a blue jagged crescent moon symbol. On a hanger was a blue and black oriental, warrior's robe that also had the same symbol as the sword. Below the robes were two warrior's boots with Sais in each holster. There was a few scrolls on the ground with several different languages in each. The most important thing was the person sitting in the middle of the room facing the other way. The person's back was to the man and looked from the posture to be studying one of the scrolls. This person was also covered in head to toe in local clothing.

"Rafeeq, you know better to interrupt me when I am taking in knowledge of the world." The figure said in a strong and cold feminine voice.

The Follower of Eli fell to his knees and bowed in respect and contrition to the warrior.

He was about to speak when the woman rose and turned toward him, saying, "If your information is as important as you mentioned to Aasim, I don't need you to be groveling in repentance for this simple transgression."

The man was amazed by the warrior's hearing ability, while rising to meet her. It was noted that while the Rafeeq was taller than the warrior, the woman stood with a stronger composure. The face of the warrior was largely covered up in exception for the dominating eyes. There was a visible scar above around the woman's right eye and it looked like the shape of a jagged crescent moon similar to the symbol on the robes.

"Ma'am, I was in the closest town to the east when I noticed three people entering town with a couple of horses. There were two women and one man in this group." Rafeeq said with an evident tone of fear coming from his voice.

From the warrior's posture it was evident that she was not impressed and said, "I'm to assume that there is more?"

Rafeeq said, "Yes, all three appeared to be warriors themselves and one the women was Livia the Bitch of Rome."

Now interested in what he had to say the scarred woman said, "Are you sure it was her?"

"Yes, I followed them into a local tavern just to make sure, and it appears she is to stay the night in the town." Rafeeq said.

The warrior said with intrigue, "This is curious."

Rafeeq then said, "What was surprising to me, ma'am was that she entered the town with only two other warriors and not one of her entire legions."

"Do not be fooled, she is an experienced commander and could have left her forces outside of the town or is disguising them." The woman said, while beginning to pace.

"Yes, my lady, but why would Rome be interested in this land now?" The man asked.

"I haven't heard from our agent in eight moons, but I have to guest that it is to attack the Temple of Eli in Jerusalem." The warrior answered.

Rafeeq wanted to know the plan and asked, "What shall we do?"

"Gather up seven of the best men and tell them to be ready to ride once the sun rises, we shall head toward the town and check the situation out. If we need reinforcements we will wait to attack her, if not we'll take them on ourselves." The warrior said stopping in front of Rafeeq.

"What shall be done to Livia, Tsuki?" The man asked.

The scared warrior walked over to her sword and picked it up.

"I will do what I must to honor my commitment to the Followers of Eli in protecting them. Plus, I warned her the last time that if she returned I would finish the job and strike her down by my blade." Tsuki said while removing the sword from her sheath.

**AN: Ok, thank you for those who have read the story this far. I wanted to again apologize for the section in the middle where Xena basically tells us facts we already know.**

**Just a few things to clear up, this is taking place in the present. Xena did end up going into the 25 year slumber without Gabrielle and The Twilight did happen (Ares and Aphrodite are still alive). Eli did come around to have the same effect, but I will again reveal more differences as the story progresses. Callisto's death did come at the hands of someone else because the **_**Sacrifice **_**arc never happened (this includes Hope's return). Who killed her will be revealed in due time. That metal rimed hat that I mentioned is a sugegasa (a.k.a. a sun hat, peasant hat, or paddy hat) that Tsuki wears and does **_**other**_** things with.**

**That is all that I am going to reveal or clear up at this moment. Continue reading in order to understand more of this AU timeline. If you have any more questions put it in your review or send me a message.**

**To any who asks: yes, I have seen the story 'Fallen' and it is a good fanfic which I would recommend reading, but it was not the initial inspiration for my story. I am making a totally different story as you will see and have seen. (My inspiration came from watching a few Xena episodes that triggered the idea).**

**Thank you tocrvenashkorpija, J-Mith, nannygirl, Rox5755, and K; for the reviews. They are appreciated.**

**This is by far the longest chapter I have ever written.**

**Thank you again for reading this story.**

**Keep on reading,**

**Der Schatten**


	3. Chapter 3, The Past Part 1

**Chapter 3, The Past #1: A State of Regret and** **A Path to Darkness**

**A State of Regret**

The night breeze was descending on the camp fire and the warrior in sitting close to it. Her arms wrapped around the knees own as she was in a state of sorrow and remorse. Tears were rolling down her beautiful cheeks with pain emanating from her blue eyes. This was a common sight for her during the last two weeks as Xena was feeling totally lost. She could not believe that she killed her intimate friend and was hoping that this was all just a bad dream that the warrior would wake up and find her bard sleeping on the opposite side of her.

After Xena had thrown Gabrielle off the cliff, she had raced back near the Amazon camp to retrieve Argo. It wasn't hard for the warrior to get her horse to come to her without being seen by the camp. She raced off into the world with a dark sense of accomplishment in her heart over the destruction of the blonde Amazon that she perceived to be the reason her son was dead. This perception of justice disappeared about a week later when she woke up one morning in expecting to see the bard's form next to her and found the spot empty. It was right then Xena remembered what she had done and a great feeling of remorse fell over her. The pain caused her to quickly expel whatever was left in her stomach. She then cried for hours asking whom ever to bring her friend back and saying she was sorry to Gabrielle for what she did. For the first time in a very long time the Warrior Princess felt helpless. The next two weeks she just wondered around the Greek country side, staying away from any towns and feeling great remorse in her heart.

The Warrior Princess sat and stared into the elegant flames from the fire. At some moments she could see her companion's face in the glorious blaze. Her stomach had started to growl for the umpteenth time; she had not eaten anything for a while since it would just come out again anyways. Tears were still running down her cheek when she felt the presence that she knew and hated all too well.

"Ares" Xena said with venom in her voice.

Turning around, she saw the War God's figure appear, he looked frustrated.

Ares had his hand on his sheathed sword as he said, "You know… I was expecting a lot more from you than this. Once you had killed Gabrielle and taken the revenge for your son, you were supposed to return to your old 'Destroyer of Nations' woman that I personally love to see and feel. Instead, you sit here all depressed and sorrowful for a woman who kept the killer of your son alive. And… (Sniff) from what I can smell you haven't taken a bath in a while."

The warrior looked into the gods eyes and said, "You're the reason Gabrielle is dead!"

She grabbed her sword and took rage induced slice at the tall man, who merely evaded the attack. Xena swung again and this time hit the god's rib cage.

Removing the sword from his side, Ares said, "I didn't do anything Xena that was all you."

"Yeah right," Xena said with anger, "you put some sort of power over me and made me kill her."

The God of War dodged a few more strikes from the blue eyed woman and said, "All that happened was entirely your doing, you wanted her dead, and you wanted to have retribution. I just gave you a little push to speed up something that you would have done on your own."

"I don't believe that!" She yelled before swinging at the dark haired man.

Ares decided to take out his sword and face her. It only took seconds before the god realized that the Warrior Princess was too distraught to fight at her full capacity. He quickly disarmed the woman and grabbed her arm to keep her in position.

"Look who's fooling herself." Ares said, "You did this, it was your choice. Why are you trying to deny what you did? She was a simple, weak girl that you only knew for a short while. There was nothing interesting about her. You getting so upset over killing Gabrielle would make someone think that you actually…"

He stopped himself and realized what his answer to his question was. Looking into the warrior's teary eyes and seeing the deep in her soul only confirmed it.

He dropped her hand and said with disgust, "You were in love with her… No wonder… This is the reason that I could never get you to join me while she was alive. Why whenever I gave you the greatest offers, you always turned me down. And why you are in too much pain to join me now. Gosh, I feel like a complete idiot. It was glaring in front of me all this time but I didn't see it."

There was a slight pause for the god to think before saying, "Of course, now that she is out of the way. You won't have your pathetic net that will protect you from joining me."

"I will never join you Ares, I will stand up for what Gabrielle fought for and that wasn't even close to following you!" Xena yelled.

"If you want to defend what she stood for, you are off to a great start. You killed her in rage just from a simple push I gave you. Just you wait Xena… Once you join me you will forget her and together this world will be ours." Ares said, with a smirk.

The woman fell to her knees and started to sob in realizing that Ares was right. She betrayed what Gabrielle believed in by taking her revenge.

"Nothing more need be said… Ding dong the bitch is dead." Ares said, disappearing back to his temple.

All Xena was left with know was her regret. She silently prayed to whoever was listening that she would not join Ares and defend Gabrielle's dream of helping the innocent to the best of her abilities.

(XWP)

**A Path to Darkness**

A loud gasp was made from the bard's voice as she awoke. This followed by immediate pain she could feel across her body, this quickly reminded her of the betrayal of the warrior's and being tossed of the cliff to her death. She was a little surprise though, not expecting there to be pain in the Elysian Fields. She then questioned if she was in Tartarus because Elysian would not have pain, only serenity. She couldn't tell however, her eyes were still adjusting to the room after being closed for a long time. All that she could feel was the pain and her breathing. Breathing? Now the blond was terribly confused, there was no way she could have survived that fall but knew that death, whether Elysian or Tartarus, had no need for the living breath.

Gabrielle's left eye started to see a wooden celling. As she turned her head a little bit to the left, she could see an odd looking room that was similar to Chin design but different. It was now apparent to her that she was not dead, but alive in some land possibly near Chin. That was impossible, how could she be near Chin when the last place she remembered was being in Greece? This was all confusing, she could not be dead because she was breathing but could not be anywhere near Chin.

The bard decided to guessed she was alive and to see if she could move anything. The surprises of her awakening continued, she could move her every part of her body that she could feel and a majority of her pain was suddenly gone. She still felt a large portion of her pain around her right eye and could still only see darkness from it. Then she realized her eye had a bandage over it, as did a large portion of her body.

"Ah, I see you are finally awake." An older male's voice said inside the room.

In order to see who it was, Gabrielle turned her head to the room's entrance and saw an old bearded man holding a tray of items. The man had a similar complexion as a man from Chin again there was some differences.

"I see that you have made it back to the land of the living sooner than I could suspect." The man said while moving towards her bed.

The man knelt beside her and it was made visible that there was a cup on the tray. The man picked up the cup and put it in front of her.

"Here, you must be thirsty." The bearded man said as the bard moved to a sitting position.

After noticing that there was water inside the cup, Gabrielle grabbed the cup and drank all the contents quickly.

She handed the cup back to the man and started asking questions, "How long was I out?"

The man put the cup on the tray and said, "Three weeks."

Disbelief ran through the Amazon's head, how could she have been out for three weeks? With the damage she took she should have been at least out for several months to have this type of recovery.

"If you give me a second to set this tray down, I will answer all of your questions." The man said while walking over to a table on the other side of the room.

Soon the man had put the tray on the table and returned to the blonde's bedside.

The man looked at the former queen with his weathered eyes and said, "Ask away."

The first question burst out of the bard quickly, "Who are you?"

Giving a little grin, the man replied, "My name is Shirou. I am an old and great warrior who lives on Mount Kenashi, which is near Mount Fuji."

"Where is Mount Fuji? Is it near Chin?" Gabrielle asked immediately.

Putting his hand up to silence the young woman, the old man said "Hold on a moment child. It is courtesy to give your name after asking for mine."

The bard felt a little stupid and said, "I'm sorry, my name is Gabrielle of Potedia."

The man now answered the blonde's earlier question, "Mount Fuji is not in Chin, it is in Jappa. This land that is even further East than Chin and it is also known as the Land of the Rising Sun. From your accent and language I could guess that you are from the western land known as Greece?"

"How did you know that? Now that I think about it, how do you know to speak the Greek language?" Gabrielle asked with wonder.

"When you isolate yourself on a mountain with only scrolls to read, you become surprised what you may learn." The man said with a gingerly smile.

Another question protruded the Amazon's thoughts and asked, "How did I get here? Because the last time I was conscious, I was in Greece."

The old man said, "I am not sure how you got here myself. I was taking a night time stroll along the nearby Lake Motosu, when I saw a light flash and your broken body drifting towards me. I wasn't sure who or what sent you to me."

Gabrielle believed the man and the asked again, "How come I was healed so quickly?"

The man looked to her wrappings and said, "Well Gabrielle, along my many journeys I picked up on some magical abilities that allow me to heal serious injuries like broken bones, gashes, burns, and muscle damage. When I saw how close you were to death because of your injuries, I used my powers to help heal your body. However, there are some unfortunate residual effects like the powerful pain you felt when you woke up. Your skin is deeply scared in many places where there was damage, so I covered it up to prevent any infections."

He then pointed his hand to the bard's covered right eye and said, "You must have taken a nasty fall on that eye because the worst scar is located around the socket. I would wait a couple of month before uncovering the skin. Though, I could make a hole in the bandages to allow you to see out of it."

Gabrielle then thought of how she hurt her eye, and then immediately thought of the Warrior Princess which made her blood boil.

The old man then looked at the bard's eye and said, "Do you want to tell me how you got all of that damage?"

"I am really thankful what you have done for me and I owe you my life, but..." the blonde said, while trying to get up but quickly flopped back down.

Putting his hand an arm on her, the old man tried to make her lie down, while saying, "I forgot to mention that my healing has temporarily made it hard for your body to have any good balance. The best way to gain it back is through rest."

Taking the advice he had given her, Gabrielle laid back on the bed. Anger swept over her as she thought about the brunette's betrayal, which put her into this position.

"Betrayal is a nasty thing to deal with, isn't it?" The haggard voice said, breaking the silence.

Before the bard could ask him how he knew that she was betrayed, he answered her question, "I am a former warrior myself and have seen many men with the same look on your face when they have been betrayed."

Gabrielle now understood how he knew. Suddenly, sleep started to take over her body and her eyes began to close.

"One thing, was your betrayer important to you?" The old man asked from the doorway.

"Very," She replied as she fell into the black abyss of her dreams.

(XWP)

Faces and feelings were haunting Gabrielle's slumbering mind.

Xena's vengeful face as she started to drag her out of the Amazon village. A feeling of fear, Xena was going to make her feel horrible pain.

Xena's angered face as she blamed her for Solan's death. A feeling of anger, Xena did not care for her pain after killing her own daughter, evil or not.

Xena's determined face as she got on the boat to Chin. A feeling of jealousy, Xena would do more to for Lao Ma than she would ever do for her.

Xena's deviously happy face as she watch her fall to the rocks below. This face came with two feelings. A feeling of betrayal, Xena was willing to kill her and betray the trust the bard had. A feeling of hatred…

Gabrielle hated the Warrior Princess, she had done everything for the woman and it still meant nothing to nothing to her. She left a perfectly decent life to follow the Warrior Princess, in the hopes that she may teach her a thing or two. However, the blue eyed woman would never teach her much of anything and had to learn fighting herself or from others.

She had told the warrior everything about her life, every little dark secret… well almost. Yet every time she wanted to know more about Xena, the brunette would just brush her off like a she was a nuisance. This left the blond wide open to be hurt when finding out things like Solan or Lao Ma. Lao Ma…

There was rage in her head as she thought about that name because it only confirmed the point that Xena never cared. The most important person in the warrior's life was never going to be her it was going to be that bitch from Chin. How many other people were more important than her in the Warrior Princess's life, she wondered. It was obvious where she ever stood with the blue eyed woman's mind when she thought about people like Lao Ma, Ulysses, Borias, Ares, and probably many more important people Xena never trusted to let her know about.

Gabrielle had put all of her trust in Xena, her faith in Xena, her hope in Xena, her dedication in Xena, and her heart… especially her heart that the Warrior Princess had crushed into a thousand pieces. And what did the bard achieve out of all of this? To be tossed into the ocean like a worthless dead fish. To be thrown half-a-world away from her home. To be made to feel weak…

All of this made her want to hurt the Warrior Princess. She wanted to see that smile leave that perfect face and be replaced with fear. She wanted to watch the warrior tremble beneath her strength. She wanted to see pain in her blue eyes in the understanding of the pain the bard felt right then. Part of her wanted more. What the Gabrielle wanted was...

Instantly, the blonde woke up from her slumber to the noise of thunder protruding the walls of her room. Gabrielle looked out the window in her room and saw the night time darkness being filled with rain. The former bard's thoughts were filled with a determination to get better than the Warrior Princess, to achieve her new goal. The green eyed girl started to rise out of the bed, but fell back because of a lack of balance. This wasn't going to stop her, so she tried again and focused on her balance. Then she was standing on her own two feet while putting a lot of concentration to standing up. The bard looked at the door and decided to go find this place's training room. She knew walking would be difficult, and her first step made her nearly fall on her face. A few steps later she made it to the door. At this point Gabrielle decided to press forward with her new plan.

(XWP)

In another room of the house sat a meditating Shirou, who was feeling great pleasure at his plans. The shorter woman was coming along nicely. If he continued to play his role right she would be mentally ready for revenge in a few moons. It was easy for him to deceive this girl into believing that he was a simple old hermit warrior with her mental state. The only thing that was real from his conversation with her was that he truly was surprised that it had only taken her three weeks to awaken. The strength from this woman was gratifying and knew that training her would not take much time. He was excited at the prospects of training her. After she has fully recovered from the healing, her training will begin. The only thing that still concerned him was that she had affectionate feelings for her betrayer. This would make dissuading her from these feelings more difficult. Sighing, the man knew that if he could not do so, he could easily just kill her.

Suddenly, Shirou heard a noises coming from inside his large home. There was a feeling of annoyance in his head because he really did not want to have to deal with the stupid kids who thought were brave enough to enter the home of, what the villagers called him, 'Dākumeiji'. The man got up and decided when he scared these kids they would get a full taste of his powerful illusions to make their dreams permanently haunted.

Leaving his room of meditation, the bearded man started walking to the grand entrance that the children normally used. He was about half way there when he realized that the noise was coming from the part that held the training area. There was a little surprise in the man mind because most people neither go, nor enter the house, in that area. At the entrance to his main dojo, he realized that somebody was training in the room with a staff. He opened the door to determine this unusual incident that was happening.

What he found in the training area thrilled his dark ambitions. The blonde woman was practicing the staff on one of his wooden practice dummies. It was obvious from her sloppy form because her balance was still lacking, but she was using her determination to keep her standing. The ferocity in her strikes against the helpless wooden mannequin made it easy to determine that she was enraged about her betrayer and was close to the mindset of wanting complete retribution. This caused Shirou's scheming smirk grew broader than it had in a long time, knowing that her conviction was further along than he expected.

Deciding to make his presence known he loudly cleared his throat. Turning around too quickly to see where the noise had come from, the bandaged woman fell flat on her face at the loss of concentration making her balance disappear. The woman gave a loud shout of anger because of her continuous poor balance. He could tell that the woman had cut a rough hole in the wrapping around her right eye in order to see out of. As her head rose, the old man saw what he fully expected to from her eyes, anger and hatred.

The woman lowered her head at sight of the old man and said, "I am sorry Shirou, I thought you were in bed and…"

Interrupting her apology, the old man said, "As long as you can explain your reason for practicing this late at night, no apology is necessary."

It took her a second for her to organize an answer before saying, "I want to become stronger."

"Why would you want to become stronger?" The old man questioned with feigned curiosity.

After pushing herself into a kneeling format, she said, "To become strong enough to defeat the person who caused me great pain."

"Who is this person you want to defeat?" The old man asked, this time seriously.

"Her name is Xena." The bard said in disgust at the name.

"You mean the Warrior Princess, slayer of the Green Dragon?" He asked to make sure.

The small woman had rage in her voice when saying, "She lied to me about that too!"

In his mind a grin grew wider, knowing he hit a sensitive subject.

"Why do you want to hurt this woman?" he said, deciding to change the subject.

The words that flew out of her mouth were full of venom in her voice, "Because she made me weak! When I was traveling with her, asked her multiple times to train me in the ways of the warrior but every time she refused! Making it easier to torture my body for her pleasure! I put my trust in her that used to control me like a puppet! I gave my heart to her which she played with, toyed with, and finally ripped in two! All she ever did was keep me weak! So she could cause me pain and kill me when it suited her! Now I want to hurt her! Make her feel weak against me! Let her know the pain I felt when she tossed me off that cliff!"

The bandaged woman was breathing a little heavier after her spiteful rant. The Shirou's mind was now in a state of dark ecstasy. He thought that the affection for the Warrior Princess would hinder her revenge instead it added more fuel to the darkness raging in her heart.

He finally said, "That is not all you want to do to her, is it?"

Seeing that his words had ma her come to a full realization of what she wanted was pure devilish pleasure in his soul, as Gabrielle said in an eerily calm voice, "No, you're right. I want to kill her. See her life be taken by my will. To make the punishment on her for destroying me absolute. I don't just want to hurt her. I want my _Revenge_ on Xena!"

He finally grinned and started to pace around the woman.

After allowing the thought to seek in her head, the old man spoke, "You will need to be able to be stronger than Xena in order to get your revenge. Even if you were in full health, you could not possibly hope to defeat her."

The blonde started thinking again and had despair in her voice saying, "Your right, I could never train myself to be stronger than her."

Shirou stopped behind her and said, "I could train you to become strong enough to defeat her."

Gabrielle turned her head to the man and said, "You could? Why?"

"As I told you before I use to be a warrior myself, but not just any warrior though a powerful one. In my prime, I was able to bring the Emperor's full army to a painful end. I have never taken on a student but you might just be the exception." Shirou said while resuming his pacing.

The bard followed the former warrior's movement and said, "Why? What is so special about me? It is not like I look like much of a fighter."

Staring into the bandaged woman's green eyes, he said, "What you look like doesn't matter, it is what I can see and have seen you do. You survived a fall than many would have died from. You woke up from you're slumber sooner than I ever expected. You were also able to stand and maintain you're balance with just your will. I see a strong body, whom just hasn't had her power tapped yet. I see person with instincts that can become quick and cunning to any situation. I see a mind that can become smarter than any philosopher or god. I see a fire in your soul that has a will and a determination to complete its goals with the right tools. True, you may not look like much right now, but you have the potential to become the greatest warrior in history, even greater than Xena. That is why I want to train you… but I warn you it will not be easy."

"What must I do to achieve this?" She asked with determination.

Standing in front of her, he said, "You must be willing to train harder than you ever have before. Push your body and mind beyond its limits. Learn whatever I teach you. It is important that you leave behind your foolishly innocent ideas about emotions and feelings, love and hate, life and death, right and wrong, good and evil. You must commit yourself to my teachings. Then I will be your sensei and train you to become powerful enough take your vengeance."

"Sensei?" She asked, not familiar with the term.

"Teacher." he replied.

Gabrielle then bowed her body before the old man and said, "I commit myself to your teaching's sensei."

"Good."

**AN: Hey thanks for reading this far, I hope you have enjoyed this fic. Remember I am just an amateur writer and I am not the greatest.**

**Now you probably want to me to answer a question most of you have of 'what the (bleep) just happened? I thought we were twenty-nine years into the future with Xena and Eve? Now you just pulled us back into the past? What is going on?'**

**To start, I want to say that the format will be in a format of chapters of the **_**Present**_** (twenty-nine year after the first chapter) and the **_**Past**_** (events that happened during the twenty-nine years). Why am I doing this? Because when I first conceived the idea of the story, it originally was primarily was only about the **_**Present**_**. However, if I didn't clear up the past and how we got to a certain point in time, it would leave a big plot hole, and while I am a fan of flashbacks, I hate reading a chapter starts out normally then become 90% of just a flashback. **

**Now that I have answered that here is how the chapters will go, normally it will be an alternating rotation of one in the **_**Present**_** and one in the **_**Past**_**. There obviously may be times when one part might have two or three chapters in a row but not very often. Each part will go in chronological order. The **_**Past**_** will only include parts that you as a reader will need to know in order to connect certain dots. I am not planning on going through five chapters, explaining the how one of them was infatuated with some OC for a few months. The **_**Present**_** may have filler chapters in the stories, but I will not try to do it often.**

**Other things to clear up: Yes, I totally stole Ares' line from the Bitter Suite episode. Honestly, I think if Gabrielle were to have died at that time that Ares would have had said something similar. **

**When it comes to Gabrielle, some of you may be upset how she is giving into her hatred so quickly and that she would never turn to revenge. I have three things to reply to that:**

**I did warn you in the first chapter that she would get dark in this story.**

**There is no proof that Gabrielle could have never gone dark before, there are many examples showing that she has dwelled near dark ideas. Like the majority of seasons 5 and 6.**

**This is just a fan story and the use of the characters is entirely for entertainment.**

**Please if you are going to post a bad review on this story, be respectful about it. You wouldn't want me to go bashing a story that you worked on for a few hours.**

**For the record, I will try to update once a week normally on Saturdays. This is not a promise because I might happen to fall behind on my writing as we get closer to the beginning of May and might have to take a few weeks to catch up.**

**I seem to continue breaking my longest chapter ever written mark.**

**Thank you again for reading this story.**

**Keep on reading,**

**Der Schatten**


	4. Chapter 4: Encounter of Warrior Legends

**(Please Read the AN at the bottom it is very important for the upcoming chapters of the story.)**

**Chapter 4, The Present: Encounter of Warrior Legends**

The village's market place was bustling with traders in the morning heat. Virgil and Eve were looking around the market place for supplies while waiting for Xena to return with another horse. It was discovered earlier that morning that the former Roman Warrior's horse had badly bruised its ankle bone in during the night. The injury made the horse unable to complete their trek to the Temple of Eli in Jerusalem. The stable owner told the travelers that there was a farm a few miles to the East with good horses and a reasonable farmer who would trade with them. Deciding to have some peace and quiet, the older warrior took Argo II and headed towards the farm, leaving the Greek male and younger female warrior to replenish their supplies at the market.

Virgil was slightly uncomfortable by this prospect. There was a large part of him that accepted and believed in the young brunette's change, but he still had some anger towards his father's slayer. To push these awful feelings aside, he thought about how his father would be proud of him for making this journey with her or how her mother would slice his throat open if he did anything.

"Hey," Eve said while looking at one of the shops, "do you think we could use a new use a new water pouch? Because my pouch has been storing more sand than water recently."

The male warrior thought about it for a moment before saying, "You know maybe we should make that two, my pouch has felt more sandy than normal."

They both started making their way towards the stand when the short brunette said, "The last time I was in this region my soldiers seemed to have a similar problem…"

The former Roman warrior realized that she was talking about her former escapades against the Followers of Eli in front of a man whose father she killed for also being a Follower.

"Sorry…"

"Don't worry about it." Virgil said, knowing that Eve didn't mean to bring up her bloody past.

The rest of the short distance they walked was in muteness between the two. Both started to look at the different type of merchandise this man had to offer. The younger woman picked up the pouch she thought would last the longest in this environment and waited for another customer to be done trading with the stand owner.

After the bargaining was done, the brunette moved towards the stand owner and said, "How much for this water pouch?"

Standing there for a second looking at the pouch, she realized the man hadn't replied to her. Eve looked up and faced man who was giving her a blank stare. Suddenly, the female warrior realized that this man had seen 'Livia' from somewhere before.

Virgil stepped in and said, "Hey, she asked you how much should she pay for the pouch?"

The man, who was rather portly, turned his head away from the two and said with venom, "I will not sell anything to her."

"Look we have money, we are willing to pay." The Greek male said, trying to reason with the man.

The stocky sales man said, "I will not sell anything to the bitch!"

Getting angry with the way the man was treating her, the muscular man grabbed the round man by his collar and said, "Hey, don't talk to her like that!"

The young woman put her right hand on his shoulder and said, "Virgil, it's okay, let's just leave it alone."

"You should listen to your General, little soldier boy, for I will not sell her anything after she slaughtered my wife and two boys!" The man yelled at the female warrior.

Eve started to back up after she heard what she had done to the man. Letting go of the man, Virgil turned around to see the former Roman warrior run away from the stand.

He started to chase after her and heard the stand owner shout, "Yeah, you better run 'Bitch of Rome' because you're a dead woman in this area or have you forgotten what…"

It didn't take long to find Eve in an alleyway away from the market place. She was leaning against a wall with a very down cast look on her face.

A concerned Virgil got in front of her and said, "What's wrong, why did you run away like that?"

"You know why." She said, without even looking up at him.

"No I don't, we've encountered several people who have reacted to you like that and you haven't ever run away from them. Why this guy?" The strapping man said with confusion.

"It isn't just this guy. It's you, it's the last man, woman and child that my actions have killed somebody's loved one. And every time I find another person like him, it slowly feels like a piece my soul dies because of the pain that person has gone through because of me. I normally am able to not show anyone how it affects me, but sometimes I just can't help the pain disturbing me." Eve said looking the Greek Warrior in the eyes with tears forming in her own.

"Hey," Virgil said while putting his hands on her shoulders to comfort her, "it's okay to let people know that your past misdeeds affect you."

"I can't let my mom see it because she will just make my pain hers, and I can't let her do that she still has her own demons to deal with." Eve said looking away.

For the first time Virgil realized how regretful Eve really was about her past as 'Livia.' Not only that, he saw a woman that want not just to be strong for herself but for her mother, even if being strong made her have even more distress than she needed to have.

The taller warrior pulled the short woman into a hug out kindness and said, "You don't need to keep this to yourself… You know if you need to ever talk to somebody about how you feel I would be willing to listen."

Pulling away from the hug, Eve said, "I couldn't do that to you. Since I've hurt you…"

"I have already forgiven you for that. Besides, it would make me feel better to know that you felt better." Virgil said giving a smile.

Eve felt very undeserving of his gesture and blushed. Then she said, "That is very kind of you. I'll remember that."

"Don't worry about it." Virgil said, feeling better to see her look a little happier, "Let's head back to get some more supplies. I'm sure not all of the people in the market are going to act like him."

They started walking back to the market place with Eve feeling better than she had before. It really impressed her that Virgil had been so nice to her, even after she killed his father. She felt a little sad known that she would never be acquainted with the man who had fathered the gallant fellow walking right next to her.

"Hey," Virgil started to ask, "As I was chasing after you, that sales man said you were a dead woman in this area. What did he mean by that?"

"It's nothing to important, just his anger getting the best of him. You shouldn't worry about it." Eve said, even though she knew the grave importance of what the salesman meant.

(XWP)

In the distance the scared warrior was looking at the village market place with its current inhabitance. Obviously she could see Livia, in a poor disguise, traveling around the place buying supplies with, what Tsuki assumed, was a Greek turncoat in her army. Other than, that not a lot about what she was seeing made sense.

"Well, do you think that her forces are concealed as citizens in the market?" Rafeeq asked, standing next to Asim, six other men, and their horses.

"No." Tsuki said with certainty, while never looking away from inspecting the area. "Those are locals; their clothes wouldn't be as accurate if they weren't."

Asim then asked what all of the men were thinking, "Then where are her forces? There no sign of them anywhere within a quarter of a day's ride near this village."

"Is it possible that she is scouting further ahead to help her forces?" Another man added.

Still scanning the area, the mostly covered warrior said, "I am not entirely sure. This is an unusual approach considering her normal tactics."

She put the monocular away to turn to the eight men. The scarred warrior said with cold ambience, "Whatever her strategy is, she has left herself wide open for attack. I want you all to ride into the settlement and four of you engage the both of them. The other four of you stay and guard the area around the fighting encase this third warrior shows up. Once I arrive, I will take on Livia myself. Understood?"

All of the men nodded and started to mount their horses. The scarred warrior looked back upon the village trying to understand this abnormal move. Not only was Livia nowhere near her forces, but she wasn't carrying a sword or wearing armor. This would be more comprehensible if the Roman Warlord had made a better effort to hide who she was.

It would not be the first time that Livia had confused her. When she had last fought the younger female, the scarred warrior was prepared to kill her but something about the brunette stopped her. There was this eerie sense of familiarity about her as the concealed warrior was preparing to finish her off. This for some reason had prevented Tsuki from completing the job and let Livia depart the area with the warning to never come back, something she has rarely done for many others. Since then, the scarred warrior often questioned herself about what had compelled her let the younger warrior go.

Tsuki observed that the men were just starting to race towards the village, while letting out their own a unique battle cry. She progressed over to and mounted her white horse. The warrior was uncomfortable in her current attire, wanting to be in her normal warrior's outfit than the regional clothes she had to wear for environment reasons. It didn't take long to get the horse into its full gallop guiding it in the direction of market place.

This time would be different, she thought. She had given the brunette a very generous warning and now that she had returned Tsuki would finish off the 'Bitch of Rome.'

(XWP)

Xena was just making it over the last large sand dune on her return to the village. The short trip to the farmer's ranch was gainful for her. At first, the Warrior Princess was worried about not having enough money to trade with the man, since she forgot to bring a considerable amount with her. When she started to talk business with the rancher it seemed to go well. The deal did get hectic once she had given her name to the man, because now he basically willing to give her his best horse for nothing. He was rambling about he could never take any money from the 'Defender of the Faith.' It took a considerable amount of reasoning to get the farmer to take a rather small stack of dinars. Then it took another short journey to make it to the top of the sand dune.

For Xena the small time alone had been satisfying to her conscious after the previous night's lachrymose session with her daughter. It helped the older brunette clear her mind and regain her focus.

Looking over the small settlement, the older warrior could see that the market place exchange was in full swing. It probably wouldn't be too hard for her daughter and Virgil to replenish their goods so they can get resume the journey.

Suddenly, her dominant warrior instinct's felt some danger coming from distinct sounds. The noise of several horses galloping at full speed and a unique, unfamiliar sound of battle cries being shouted outside of the village. She turned her head towards the noises coming from the north and saw a group of eight horse-riding men with their swords wielded in an attack formation aimed for the village. Once they began entering the village, she saw the town ringing a bell and could recognize the locals moving away from the market place. This left two figures alone in the plaza that the older warrior recognized as her daughter and Virgil. She saw one more detail that was also approaching from the north; a white horse was entering the town at amazing speed with a shorter person in the saddle. Knowing that the duo was in danger from the raiding party, Xena push her horse as fast as she could go with the second steed in tow. The Warrior Princess hoped she reach the settlement to could stop this group before they hurt either Eve or Virgil.

(XWP)

Virgil and Eve had been able to replenish most of the supplies and were searching for one or two more things. They heard an unfamiliar shouting being made from outside the marketplace. Then the town bell started to ring in a distinctive beat, which caused all the locals and merchants run away from the town square. Both Greeks were uncertain what to do and started to hear the noise of several horses charging into town.

The pouch merchant ran past the two and yelled at Eve, "You're harbinger is coming get our repentance now Livia!"

Immediately, the younger brunette woman knew who was coming and started saying, "Virgil, you know that thing the merchant said earlier and I told you not to worry about it?"

"Yeah?" The Greek male said in confusion.

"Now you should worry about it." Eve replied as they saw eight horse riding men enter the plaza.

They stopped as four men dismounted their horses. One of the dismounted men spoke in the local language to the other four men remaining on their horse, which made them slowly leave the plaza.

The man who was giving orders turned to the duo and said, "Livia of Rome, your death is upon you."

Noticing that the four men were unsheathing their bended swords, Virgil took out his sword and saw that the local blacksmith had left his stand untouched with a couple Greek shaped swords. The muscular Greek quickly grabbed one of these swords and tossed it to Eve.

The female warrior looked with concern at Virgil and said, "Virgil, you should get out of here. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Look, I am not going to leave you and fight these men alone. Together we can take these four down easily." Virgil said watching the four men approach them.

This was not what the former Roman warrior was concerned about as she positioned her sword in her battle stance. The four men reached them and started attacking each warrior in groups of two. Eve quickly parried the shorter man that attacked first and side-stepped the taller man. It could be easily discerned that the female combatant would be able to take down both of her enemies. In a matter of minutes, the brunette warrior was able to take down and knock out the two men. She turned quickly, to see Virgil was still battling both of his opponents and was faring well against both.

Before Eve was able to help her companion, she heard another horse riding into the action that made her look at the incoming person. She saw a white horse galloping in with a person whose eyes and moon shaped scar were the only parts visible because of her body being covered from head to toe in a regional outfit. Recognizing who this person was; Eve felt great dread course throughout her body in the realization that the likelihood of death was upon her.

The scarred warrior leaped out of her saddle, to about twenty yards away from the brunette warrior. It was to any bystander noticeable that the scared warrior was a few inches shorter than Eve.

The strong and effeminate voice of the covered warrior said in a icy tone, "Livia, I warned you to never come back to this land."

"My name isn't Livia anymore, Tsuki. It is Eve, and I no longer want to hurt any of the Followers of Eli. In fact, I have come to pray at the Temple in Jerusalem." The brunette said to the warrior, trying to explain her true reasons for returning.

"Do you really expect me to believe that? The last report I got from Rome eight moons ago said that you were still eliminating the Followers. Am I somehow supposed to believe that you have not only stopped killing the Followers in the recent eight moons but have join… what was it you called it? 'Eli's pathetic little cult?'" The shorter warrior said with an emotionless sound in her voice, while starting to circle the brunette.

"Yes," Eve said and matching the other warrior's movement, "I have no ill intentions to the Followers. You can see that or wouldn't I have come here with an army of Rome?"

"While it is true that I see no current visible evidence that you have come with a force of your own, this doesn't deter the high likelihood that you have scouted ahead and left one of Rome's best legions waiting for your orders. From your past history, this would make you an apparent threat to the Followers in this region." The scarred warrior said stopping her movements and put a hand on her still sheathed sword.

Eve decided to counter Tsuki's logic, "If you are correct, why would I come here without a better disguise and a sword?"

"All that proves is that you were naïve enough to think I had already left the region and that nobody would challenge you if I wasn't here. Well Livia, I am here and it is impracticable to believe that I would spare you a second time." Tsuki said calmly, while drawing her sword to enter her own fighting stance.

Putting herself in a fighting stance, Eve gave one last try in persuading the warrior, "This doesn't have to happen, Tsuki."

"Oh, but it does." The scarred warrior said, staring at Eve with her cold, almost emotionless eyes.

Then the shorter woman quickly dashed the distance between the two and struck the brunette's sword with silent ferocity. Eve made a side step and slice on her adversary but was easily blocked. Knowing that it would take every move the former Roman Warlord knew just to have any possibility of winning, she decided to use one of her special moves on the scarred warrior. This sequence of moves would involve: her making a normal vertical slash attack that would be blocked, and then grabbing her opponent's dueling arm at the elbow, bending the arm by putting more force into her sword, and finally knocking the adversary down with a leg sweep. Eve made the first move in the series. Instead of her blocking the attack, Tsuki made a step backwards while pushing Eve's sword downward. She then made flip the delivered a nasty kick to Eve's chin. After the brunette recovered, she had to swiftly block an oncoming diagonal slice that was followed by a gut punch that Eve barely stopped. It was becoming obvious to Eve that this battle had little to no possible outcome of her victory or survival.

Virgil had just finished beating his final opponent when he looked over towards the sounds of swords still clashing. The duel that he was witnessing surprised him. The shorter warrior was on the offensive against Eve and was outmatching her with noticing a couple of bruises and cuts on the brunette's body. Deciding to help his companion, he ran over towards the fight and took a strong swing at the concealed warrior's left side. His powerful attack was effortlessly blocked by the smaller opponent, who didn't even bother to look at him.

The taller woman saw what the Greek male was doing and desperately said, "Virgil, you don't know what you're doing! She'll kill you!"

"I would listen to your commander, turncoat. She knows what she is talking about." Tsuki warned before pushing his sword off.

Virgil had a feeling he was facing somebody out of his league but ignored it saying, "I am not going to let you die, Eve."

Another slice was taken by the fit man and this time was stopped the shortest warrior's hand that now had a death grip on his wrist. Making a quick slash to help her friend, Eve found her sword being blocked by Tsuki's sword. Virgil was straining against the scarred warrior's grip, while Eve pushed her sword against the blocking one.

Having little trouble holding off both of her adversaries' efforts, Tsuki calmly said, "Perhaps I should give you more credit, Livia. You did coordinate this false story with your soldier in case someone went after you."

Letting go of her block against the taller woman, the covered warrior used her grip on Virgil's arm to rotate her body upwards and knock Eve back several feet. Her rotation continued to gain momentum that she used to fling the Greek warrior over her shoulders. Virgil landed solidly on his tail bone and felt the wind get knocked out of him. This delayed him from noticing the short warrior's fast approach towards him. As soon as he realized her movement, she gave him a potent kick to the side of his head that would knock him out for several hours.

Deciding to kill him later, Tsuki moved back towards the now battle ready taller female. The brunette went quickly on the offensive and made several blows with her blade that was blocked. Then she gave a kick of her own to the scarred warrior's mid-section, one of the few blows that she had been able to deliver in the duel. The result of her kick was minimal and Tsuki took the opportunity to strike a back handed punch to Eve's face. The punch had clearly caused a more noticeable pain than the kick did causing the taller warrior to create a stalemate of sword blows against her opponent.

With the aching starting to mount across Eve's body from the hits she had taken, the taller warrior knew that she could not last any longer. This forced her to use her signature move in a last ditch effort at taking victory from the jaws of her certain demise. Eve rushed towards Tsuki and grabbed her shoulders to thrust her body over. Twisting her body in mid-air and getting behind the shorter warrior to use her feet. Her move was going perfectly, giving Eve the feeling of a fighting chance. Just as she was about to launch the scarred warrior, Tsuki was able to break the grip on her shoulders and side rolled out of the move. With nothing to hang on to, Eve fell on her back and lost the grip on her sword. A blade was then pressed against her neck just as she got positioned on her elbows. She saw Tsuki standing over her with the shorter warrior's left leg press firmly against Eve's chest.

"That is an interesting variation of a great move, but nothing that haven't already prepared to counter." Tsuki said with a sigh.

The scarred warrior continued, "This is part where I finish the job. You should have heeded my warning Livia."

Eve saw that the shorter warrior was drawing her sword back to prepare for the kill. As she closed her eyes in anticipation of the darkness that would soon come, Eve silently thought about how she was going to miss her mother.

(XWP)

_(Several Minutes Earlier)_

It took more time than Xena expected to reach the settlement and quickly dismounted Argo II. She needed to reach the town plaza and help out her daughter and Virgil. However, she quickly ran into one of the horse riding warriors and the man drew his sword. Xena did a quick flip to jump on the back of the horse's saddle and knock the man out by smashing her fist to back of the head.

After pushing the man to the ground, she leaped off the horse and on to the top of a building to get a better view of the marketplace. She saw Virgil taking on two warriors and taking one of them down. She then turned to see Eve and a shorter warrior, who looked completely covered from head to toe in desert clothing, circling each other. From the distance, it looked like Eve was trying to talk to the other warrior out of fighting. Then the shorter warrior dashed towards the younger brunette with incredible speed and started to face her in combat. The Warrior Princess was going to leap in the direction of the plaza, but heard a man shouting below her in the native language, gathering two other men to join him. Knowing that she would have to take care of the three men first, she jumped down and took out her sword to engage the warriors.

The three men put up a valiant effort against her, but were taken out by the older warrior after several minutes. The blue eye woman speed off to the market place where she was surprised by the scene she was beholding. Eve was on the ground with several cuts and bruises on her body. The covered up warrior was standing on top of her daughter with a sword at the brunette's neck, and the short warrior's back was facing Xena's current position. The short warrior drew her sword back to take the final blow. On instinct, Xena grabbed her chakram and threw it to bounce off a few walls before aiming for the warrior.

(XWP)

Tsuki realized that another person had entered the plaza and guessed that it was Livia's final companion. This didn't really didn't matter to the scarred warrior as this person was too far away to do anything. She looked at the green eyes of the Roman warrior and again had this feeling that she reminded her of someone. However, it truly didn't matter because this time she would kill the person who massacred many of the Followers. As Tsuki drew her sword back for the final blow, she saw Livia close her eyes in acceptance of her end.

Suddenly, she heard a unique noise. A noise that the scarred warrior knew only belonged to only one weapon used by one warrior in the entire world. A warrior Tsuki believed to be dead.

Her thoughts became words as she whispered, "Impossible."

Tsuki put her sword behind her back to deter the incoming chakram from hitting her spine. After making her block, she turned around and watched the flying weapon bounce off a few spots before returning to its owner. The scarred warrior was now starring directly into the brown eyes of the very much alive legend… Xena.

(XWP)

Like the rest of the body, the face was mostly covered on the short warrior, but it was easy for Xena to see a noticeable scare around the right eye that was shaped like a crescent moon. Looking at the warrior's eyes she saw cold green eyes of a hardened person that had an indeterminate amount of emotions flowing through them. Xena did not believe in destiny, but for some reason this encounter had a strong feeling of fate in it. It was as almost if she was supposed to meet the scarred warrior. The shorter warrior's cold emotion filled eyes blinked and, as if she could control it, were replaced with cold emotionless eyes.

The covered warrior stepped to her left and calmly said in a strong, effeminate voice, "Xena; the Warrior Princess, you privilege me with your legendary skills. Though, I am surprised that you defend a person who has slaughterer many of the Followers of Eli considering your link to their religion."

Remembering that her daughter was still in danger of from the scarred warrior, the older brunette took a step forward and gripped her sword.

The smaller warrior put the hilt of her sword back on Eve's throat and emotionlessly said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. There is no way that you could reach Livia in time before I would kill her."

Xena stopped in her track, in acceptance that the covered warrior was right, but was a little peeved about her using Eve's former moniker. However, the use of 'Livia' confirmed to the Warrior Princess that the shorter warrior was taking on her daughter because of her past misdeeds.

"Good, now if you answer some questions to my liking, I may possibly not end Livia's life." The scarred warrior said.

"Her name is Eve, so use it correctly." Xena growled at the continued use of that name.

Sighing, the covered warrior said, "Whatever. Now to my questions…"

"I don't seem to remember you introducing yourself." Xena interrupted, glaring daggers at the smaller warrior.

"Oh, how rude of me, my name is Tsuki." She said calmly, while adding a bow that looked to have little effort put behind it.

The older brunette thought that name sounded familiar from conversations that she had overheard since she returned from her slumber.

Tsuki said returning her sword to Eve's neck, "Now, my questions. Why, is Livia… I mean Eve, in this region?"

"She is here to pray at the Temple in Jerusalem, as a Follower herself." Xena explained.

"Is there any intention by her to hurt any of the Followers?" The shorter warrior asked.

Xena answered, "No, she is only here to pray at the temple."

Not looking to have been affected by the answer, the scarred warrior said, "Are you accompanying her there?"

Xena replied, "Yes, but I have no intentions to pray there."

"Of course you won't, I know that you would never pray for any religion. What about that Greek warrior lying over there? What is his purpose?" Tsuki asked, pointing at Virgil's unconscious figure.

Xena had almost forgotten about Virgil being too focused on the smaller warrior and Eve.

"His name is Virgil. He is a Follower himself and is going with us to the temple." Xena answered, now starting to have some concern for the wellbeing of the Greek man.

The scarred warrior turned her head back to the older brunette and said, "My final questions, how are you alive? I heard the Greek gods had killed you, twenty-five years ago. And, how are you still so young? Even if you did survive, you would be a lot older by now."

The Warrior Princess gave a smirk and said, "Let's just say that the rumors of my death were exaggerated. To answer my age, I would have to say being able to sleep well certainly helps."

Not amused by the answers, Tsuki looked at one of men who were just regaining consciousness and started to give orders in the local language. The man first stared at the smaller warrior in disbelief and then relayed the commands to the other men. All of them left the plaza to grab their horses and go. The scarred warrior removed her sword's hilt from Eve's throat and moved toward her white horse. With her daughter now out of danger, the older brunette ran over to the former Roman Warlord to check on her health.

"Are you okay, Eve?" Xena said, scanning her daughter's body for any major wounds.

Eve put a hand on her mother's shoulder to calm and said with a little unsteadiness in her voice, "I'm fine, just some cuts and bruises. We should go help Virgil, he's the one knocked out right now."

Both of them moved over to the unconscious Virgil and started to check for any major injuries. Then the sound of a horse walking behind the group was heard, making both women turn to see the scarred warrior staring down at them.

"Xena," Said Tsuki from the top of her horse, "The only reason I am trusting your word on Eve, is because of how important you are to the Way of Love's history. I am also holding you responsible for her actions as well. If she harms any of the Follower's without just cause, I will kill her and hold you responsible for her actions."

Xena simply nodded at the warrior, even though she hardly believed that the shorter warrior could match her in combat.

The covered warrior turned her attention to the younger brunette and said, "Feel lucky, Eve."

Fear and gratefulness were prominent feelings in the youngest female's mind. The shorter warrior then pointed her sword at the older brunette.

"As forewarning, _I_ will be the one who kills you, Xena." Tsuki calmly said, with her cold green eyes staring fiercely into the brown ones of the Warrior Princess.

The scarred warrior kicked the sides of her horse and started to quickly gallop out of the town. A strange sensation entered Xena's body as she saw the white horse move out of sight. This cold warrior's presence was somehow familiar, even though she could not place where she had met her. It also made the Warrior Princess wonder why she wanted to kill her.

Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Who was that person? And what did she mean by you should feel lucky?"

Not having the ability to answer the question with composure, Eve said, "Mother, I will answer you after we help Virgil, and get some distance away from the village."

Even though Xena was not happy with the younger brunette's response, she decided to accept it for the time being.

**AN: I am so happy you have read this far. This makes me feel really good for those who have.**

**I must admit that life has severely caught up to me and I am behind on writing the 5****th**** chapter. This means that it is highly unlikely that the next chapter will be up this coming Saturday. I am not saying anything other than that the 5****th**** chapter will be a current work in progress and will not be ready as soon as I hoped. With other important things happening to me right now I hope that you will understand the delay.**

**Not a whole lot to clear up in this chapter because future chapters will reveal any questions you might have after this point. What Tsuki is wearing right now is a temporary outfit for the desert climate and will soon dress in the clothing that was described to you in chapter two.**

**This chapter was fun to create, especially the fight scene between Eve and Tsuki. Not a lot of Xena in this chapter but more will soon come.**

**Thank you again for reading my story.**

**Keep on reading,**

**Der Schatten**


	5. Chapter 5, The Past Part 2

**(Hey, to everybody who read the last chapter I am sorry for the brown eye mistake on Xena. I just wasn't thinking when I wrote in the eye color. My bad.)**

**Chapter 5, The Past Part 2: Talking Might Help and To Control Emotions**

**Talking Might Help**

"GABRIELLE!" The Warrior Princess screamed as she awoke from her sleep.

Quickly, she turned her teary eyes to the fire that was still going and lighting up the night time blackness. The fire was a full blast when she fell asleep, now it was much more tamed. She sat up to face the small fire, and began to silently let her tears flow like she had been doing for the last three moons.

Her nightmares were getting worse considering she couldn't have been out more than three candle marks. The bad dreams were different every time, it seemed that her subconscious mind was torturing the blue-eyed warrior for her horrible transgression. While the nightmares were always unique in handing her some type of pain, the subject of them was always the same, her favorite bard. Tonight the dream started out with her and the blonde strolling through the sunny country side like they use to do; then it changed, clouds covered up the sunshine and the duo was attacked by a shadowed figure. The Amazon queen started to fight the shadowed figure in defense, Xena tried to help her but found herself in unmovable chains. It was hard to sit there and watch the green-eyed woman get beat up by the more skilled shadow. After a few minutes of watching Gabrielle go through pain, the bard was knocked to the ground with her thrashed face looking at the brunette and the shadow standing over her with a skull-like sword. Realization set in as Xena noticed that the Amazon queen was wearing the tattered white robes that she wore three months ago. The shadow's form had taken shape in the form of the vengeful Warrior Princess. The evil Xena stood over the bard and stabbed her in the heart. That is where her latest dream ended.

There was a hopelessness feeling in Xena's mind. She doubted that she would ever recover from this state of emotional shambles. Her pain made her never want to see anybody or anything in the possibility that something might remind her of the blonde. The only reason she ever went near a town was to quickly pick up food, and even then she made sure that nobody knew it was her wearing a cloak to cover her body. She did not want any form of human contact or conversation, so she would make sure she got her supplies quickly and leave. Most days when she did not go into town, she would walk with or ride on Argo in a mindless daze seeing only the deceased beautiful girl in everything she looked at. Even in the flames the brunette was starting at now were creating images of the most magnificent face in the world.

There was a snapping noise from a branch in the woods behind her. Xena pulled out her sword and went into her Warrior Princess mode. While Xena did not want to fight anybody in her distraught condition, it didn't mean she was not going to defend herself from some worthless fool (probably a man) that wanted to take advantage of her.

Xena put on her warrior face and said to the bushes, "If you don't come out of here in the next fifteen seconds, I will not hesitate to kill you, no matter who you are."

"Ok, jeez, alright I'm coming out already." Said a familiar masculine's voice as the bushes began to rumble.

The person came out from behind the bush with his hands in the air and this man was none other than Autolycus. At the sight of the self-proclaimed King of Thieves, the brunette warrior was reminded of the deceased little bard again. The emotion wanted just to pour out of the Warrior Princess' body like a raging stream, but she kept her composure solely based one her pride never to cry in front of others.

After quickly barricading her emotions, Xena started to wonder why he was here in the first place. Her first guess was that he had heard about Gabrielle's death at her hands and had come to kill her. Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised if he did considering the mustached man always had a soft spot for the late bard. Noticing that he had nothing on him that remotely could be construed as a weapon, the idea that he came to kill her with his bare hands would be laughable. This did keep her wondering of his intentions for being here, but she put her sword back in its sheath to show that she did not consider her a threat.

She put on a less menacing but more serious face to ask, "Autolycus, what are doing here?"

While putting his hands down, Autolycus said, "You see, a little while back I heard some rumors about you and I wanted to know if the rumors were true, Xena?"

Knowing exactly what the rumors would be about, Xena decided to play dumb to keep her emotions reeled in, "What rumors."

Autolycus gave the Warrior Princess an 'I'm not buying that look' and said, "I think you know what I am talking about, the rumors that said you murdered Gabrielle in anger."

The former Conqueror of Nations could feel her eyes beginning to swell up at the mention of the Amazon's name, so she calmly turned around and kneeled towards the fire. This made it look like she was trying to continue feeding the fire instead of hiding her small stream of tears that were going down her cheeks.

Getting impatient the honorable thief asked, "Well? Are they true?"

"What do you think?" Xena replied quickly, knowing that her voice would begin to crack if she said too much.

"I really don't know what to think, Xena. I mean…" Autolycus said while rubbing the back of his head.

The Warrior Princess' thought drowned out the voice of the man as his presence triggered the memories of the time the brunette died. She remembered taking control of the thief's body to talk to the bard. The pain on Gabrielle's beautiful face made Xena want to hold the woman that she loved and was able to give her a kiss. The blue-eyed warrior had hoped that the green-eyed Amazon realized that the kiss signaled the feelings Xena had for her. Days after the Xena came back to life Gabrielle never mentioned the kiss they shared, which made the Warrior Princess wonder if the bard didn't feel the same. When the brunette finally decided to talk to the young sovereign about that day, she feared rejection. Instead, she heard Gabrielle say that Autolycus had taken advantage of the situation and kissed her. They both laughed it off that night as the 'King of Thieves' trying to desperately make a move on any woman he could find. Xena was saddened by this moment, she had a chance to tell the blonde about how she felt but took the coward's path instead. If she had professed her love right then to Gabrielle, she might have gotten a yes from the bard. She might have been able to share a life together with the shorter woman. She might have been able to avoid Britannia, avoid Hope, avoid Solan's death… avoid murdering the one she loved.

"…Have you been listening to anything I've said?" The thief said, bringing her back to reality.

Autolycus grabbed Xena's shoulder and turned her face towards his. It was noticeable to the con artist that there were tears streaming down the face of one of the strongest woman in the world. Grief just was etched in her complexion and the blue eyes were showing her relatively weak emotional defenses crumbling. The Warrior Princess finally gave up the struggle of looking strong in front of the thief, and buried her head on his shoulder while sobbing. Even though Autolycus was surprised that there was had a weeping Xena in his arms, he did his best to comfort the blue-eyed woman until her sorrow made her fall asleep. After making sure that the mighty warrior was on her mat, he went to lie down on the other side of the campfire. Sadness was in the heart of Autolycus as he knew that he had the answer that he feared and there was pain in person who made it real.

(XWP)

The next morning Xena was sitting near the campfire trying to cook up some fish before the 'King of Thieves' awoke. She was thoroughly embarrassed that she just fell apart in front of somebody. Since it was Autolycus, it was probably better than if it was anybody else. Just as the brunette warrior finished cooking the fish, the thief woke up in a very unseemly, 'manly' manner. Then the mustached man seemed to remember that Xena was there and got startled, until he looked up to see her busy cooking. His stomach loudly grumbled, which made the female warrior slightly grin.

"I am hungry too, you know?" Xena said with a little dry sarcasm.

Autolycus scratched the back of his head and said, "I didn't actually have supper last night, so I'm honestly not surprised."

The thief was given a plate of the fish meat which looked kind of burnt in some areas, while uncooked in other areas. He took a small bite before promptly spitting it out like there was some type of poison in it.

"Geez, I don't recall that the fish was cooked in dirt the last time I ate with you." The con artist said with a bad taste in his mouth.

Xena got a little sad and said, "Gabrielle was the one who cooked that time."

The silence was awkward between the two about the subject that was hanging over their heads. The mustached man knew that he would have to discuss the elephant in the campsite, but he continued to swallow the food, while he figured out what he was going to say. The only thing Xena hoping at the moment was that she could keep herself together even as she explained what happened.

A quarter of a candle mark later, Autolycus finally said, "So, it's true then?"

"Yes, it is." The Warrior Princess said, with a common sense of grief stabbing at her soul.

"Can you tell me how it happened?" The thief asked.

For the next half candle mark, the brunette calmly explained what happened to the green-shirt man. The pace at which the story was explained was slow, as to prevent another watershed incident like last night. There were tears coming out of her saddened eyes but she didn't start weeping.

"…Then I have been just wandering around from village to village, trying to keep away from any human entanglements." Xena finished, wiping the last stray tear from her eyes.

The face Autolycus was making was not a happy one, but not as furious as she expected. The brunette could tell that the information about Gabrielle's death by her hands wasn't surprising to him and the rumors he mentioned last night were probably the first way he became aware.

"When did you first learn of it?" Xena asked calmly.

Autolycus sighed and said, "I heard it from this drunken man in an Athens tavern about two months ago, I almost punched him on site for even mentioning the idea that you had intentionally harmed Gabrielle and ended up picking his pockets clean for telling a story that I thought was a complete lie."

The thought of Autolycus' form of justice upon some plastered fellow made the Warrior Princess slightly grin.

"What did he say?" Xena asked.

The con artist replied, "Well, his story was awful, he said that you killed her because you got tired of her babbling on and on about peace. I don't think that anyone believed what he was saying.

Another question formed in the blue-eyed warrior head, "If you didn't believe that drunken man in the tavern that told you the story, why did you seek me out?"

"The next few days, I was consistently hearing stories that had you killing Gabrielle. While the first man's story was ridiculous, most of the other tales had more probable reasons for why you did it and I started to wonder if they were true. Mind you, none of them even remotely mentioned the parts with Solan, Callisto, and Hope. A week after I heard the first rumor, when I had finished a job at a local dignitary's house, I started my search for you." Autolycus explained with an array of hand guestures.

The brunette then asked, "How were you able to find me? I mean, I did a great job of hiding my tracks, and if I was found by somebody, I thought that Hercules and Iolaus would find me first… no offense."

The mustached man chuckled and said, "Funny you should mention that. I actually saw them questioning for your whereabouts in a small village nearly two weeks ago. Unfortunately, they ended up following the wrong path, which would take about four months to even get remotely near your trail."

Her face even became more confused from his answer and said, "What was it that made you find me so quickly?"

The ego of the con artist look as though it grew with the grin on his face, while saying, "Xena, both Hercules and Iolaus are sharp and knowledgeable men who would ask good questions that would identify a person. Alas, they are not thieves and a good burglar knows that single detail of their steal to tell if the item is a fake or not. You my dear are no exception to the con artists' trick. There is something about you that makes you identifiable no matter how well you cover your features and hide your chakram."

A list formed in the Warrior Princess' head about everything she would use to identify herself but felt that everything she could think of would have been hidden when wearing a large cloak. When she looked at the 'King of Thieves' she realized that he was looking to her right and turned quickly to see what was over there. She face palmed at the realization of what would tip him off of her whereabouts.

"That's right, Xena." Autolycus said before tossing an apple to an ambivalent Argo.

Xena said, "You are right, I would have never thought to ask for Argo."

"I am very good at noticing things." Autolycus said with an ego grooming tone.

The brunette warrior responded quickly with, "Really? I seemed that you didn't notice me this morning when you woke up this morning."

With a look of humiliation on his face, Autolycus said, "Please don't tell people that just happened… I have a reputation to uphold."

The Warrior Princess gave a slight grin and said, "A reputation?"

"I know that I am a bandit, but I try to give people the belief that I am a gentleman thief." Autolycus said in an obscure regal pose.

"As long as you don't talk about my sobbing fest that happened last night, then nothing bad will happen." The blue-eyed woman said with sarcastic glare.

The 'gentleman' thief said, "To talk to somebody about last night would require me to sign my life over to Hades himself."

For the first time in months, Xena was laughing.

(XWP)

**To Control Emotions**

Training was tough… truly tough. Ever since Gabrielle agreed to study under Shirou two moons ago, the blond hasn't gone a day with fourteen or more candle marks of training. The first several candle marks of the day were spent building up her body physically. Then she would study several different languages and read different scrolls about any range of information. Shirou believed that knowledge is the most powerful weapon of a warrior no matter how insignificant the information seems, and languages were keys to accessing more knowledge. The last several candle marks of the day were spent on hand-to-hand combat and sword techniques. The swords used by the region seemed to fascinate the Amazon with the shape and sizes making it easy for someone of her size to handle efficiently, unlike the ones in Greece that were very bulky for no true purpose.

All of this would be great but she was progressing very slowly in remembering what she had been taught and it wasn't apparent as to why. She was only remembering basic words with her languages, the knowledge from the scrolls seem to flee from her mind soon after, and each simple move in combat seemed to take a day to learn. The only part that was improving was her body's strength and speed. In order to achieve her goal of taking revenge on Xena, Gabrielle knew that she would need to start improving soon.

The Warrior Princess was constantly on the green-eye woman's mind. Not a day went by when she would be furious about the betrayal of her former companion and even her training could not distract her from the anger that seemed to consume her every thought.

She was currently in the middle of her sword training with Shirou in court yard. The blond woman was sweating in simple black training outfit that showed off her mid-drift. It was easy to see several scars in the uncovered areas of her body and the scars themselves were oddly shaped. The gray haired man said that this was not uncommon for the healing spells to create these unusually shaped scars and even showed the green-eyed female one of his scars that looked quite abnormal. The sword she was holding was a regional beginners' that had no distinct features. Her face was still wrapped in bandages (minus the eyes, mouth, and nose) since Shirou believed that it could still be too dangerous for that scar to be opened to the air.

The move she had been learning for since the start of the day was a simple down parry with a horizontal slice. It seemed so easy when Shirou first showed it to her but whenever she tried the move herself she would fail to complete the sequence and end up on her behind. She was moving back into a beginning stance to try again with hatred for the blue-eyed warrior still completely in her thoughts.

"Begin." said the older warrior.

She started to block the first move made by Shirou. However, her ever consuming rage made her want to take down the old man, instead of using the sequence she was trying to learn. Taking a longitudinal slice caused the old man to kick Gabrielle in the stomach, making her fall on her hind end. A frustrated shout came from the younger warrior, as she was upset about not correctly completing the sequence.

Shirou was not impressed by the continuing mistakes made by the former bard. It puzzled him why so many less talented and smarter individuals were able to learn more in one moon than she had in two. He gave her an optimal amount of time each day to learn. There was no lack of determination, he was confident in that. He could see the fire of emotions in her eyes… then it finally hit him. The reason made him inwardly grin because if he was correct about what the problem was then things would suddenly become much easier.

Turning his back toward the blond, Shirou said, "We're done training for today."

This shocked Gabrielle and replied in confusion, "Why? There is still quite a bit daylight left?"

"You are not learning anything that you have been taught and I am not going to waste my time teaching you anymore." Shirou said walking back into the house.

Angered by his reply, Gabrielle ran after him with the sword still in her hands. She was not about to let this opportunity to become stronger than the brunette warrior pass her by.

"No! You've still got to continue training me. I need your teachings to make me strong enough to kill Xena!" The Amazon said with anger in her voice.

Shirou continued walking deeper into the home and seemingly ignored the green-eye student, which made Gabrielle even angrier.

"Stop! Listen to me!" She said while grabbing his left shoulder.

The old man turned around quickly and released a dark powder from his right hand into the young warrior's face. For a few second the bandaged woman stumbled backwards and started to notice that the world around her was disappearing. _The world had gone black and the blond felt totally alone in this strange place._

_A familiar voice was now heard coming from the blackness, "Gabrielle… Gabrielle where are you?"_

_Recognizing the voice as her sister Lila, the blue-eyed girl was filled with happiness at possibly seeing her sister again._

"_I'm here!" Shouted Gabrielle, "Where are you Lila?!"_

_A brighter area was suddenly showing from the darkness and Lila's voice was projecting from it._

"_Over her Gabrielle, I'm here." Said the voice._

_Not caring about anything else than seeing her sister, Gabrielle ran towards the light in anticipation of being reunited with her sister. The light was getting brighter as the blond was excited about what she would find on the other side. Abruptly, the bright light turned into an edge of a cliff, which caused the Amazon to fall off into a watery grave._

_Then the former bard found herself on the ground of a black area at the place she started from. Not sure what happened, the Amazon knew now that the voice she heard was not really genuine._

_Then a new voice appeared behind her, but this one was in pain, "Gabrielle… Gabrielle, help me…"_

_The bandaged warrior turned around quickly to find a shocking sight. There on the ground was a dying Perdicus in the armor that he wore when he was killed by Callisto over a year-and-half ago._

_His hand reached out towards the female and said, "Help me… Please…"_

_Without hesitation Gabrielle ran over to the dying form of her husband and laid his head upon her lap. She was reminded of how good of a person he was, always willing to help her out with anything. Sadness was filling her soul and tears were forming in her eyes about once again see her friend die. She always had felt a little guilty about the fact that she could never return the affection that he had for her, even after they had gotten married. This still did make her soul rip up inside when he died, and now seeing him die again hurt too much._

"_Gabrielle?" He said, with his eyes connected with hers._

"_Yes?" She said, hoping for some sweet farewell._

_Then he put his hand on her chest, which seemed to be a symbol of affection. Force suddenly came from the hand and her body moved backwards over the cliff. She then found herself back at the black room again, stunned about what just happened._

_For what felt like the next few hours the blue-eyed woman was presented with many people from her past. Some were people that she cared for like Joxer, her mother, her father, Ephiny, Aphrodite, Solan, and Iolaus. Others were people that she despised or hated like Ares, Callisto, Caesar, Hope, and Lao Ma. However, no matter who the person was, or how she emotionally reacted to them, she always seemed to fall over the same cliff. Nothing in this world was making sense to the Amazon, why were these people randomly showing up and then disappearing when she would fall over the cliff?_

_She was again in the black room waiting for somebody else to show up. Then she saw a small light appear in front of her with the back of a strong figure standing beneath it. As she moved closer to the figure she finally recognized it as her betrayer, Xena. Wanting nothing more than to kill her, the short female ran with the practice sword in position to attack. Just as she sliced at the brunette, the taller female side stepped out of the way. Gabrielle was caught off balanced and then felt a knee to her gut causing her to stumble._

"_I can't believe I let you follow me around for two-and-half years. All you ever were was an annoying side ache that I had to watch out for." said Xena with no amusement in her voice._

"_I trusted you." Gabrielle said swinging and missing the Warrior Princess._

"_I cared for you." The blonde said missing again._

"_I loved you!" The former bard yelled taking another swing._

_Then her hands were stopped by the mighty brunette's grip. For a second the Amazon stared into the other woman's blue-eyes, which had a caring look to them. The bandaged warrior closed her eyes hoping to connect her lips with the lips of the woman she loved. Instead of a kiss, a fist collided with her face dropping her to the ground._

"_Oh, please… Why would I ever care for somebody like you?" Xena said with disgust before kicking Gabrielle in the side._

"_You are naïve… annoying… disgusting… stupid… pathetic… worthless…" The Warrior Princess continued, while continuing to kick the blond after each statement._

_The torment stopped for a second leaving the shorter female laying on her stomach in pain. She was also distraught after hearing each word the legendary warrior used to describe her._

"_You know what you really are?" Xena said, causing the blond to look up at the taller woman._

"_Weak," She said, stomping her foot into Gabrielle's back, "You couldn't even fight your way out of leather pouch, and everybody knows how weak you are. The only reason I allowed you to follow me is because you helped me with my reputation. You see, I need somebody very weak to tag along with me to show how much I have changed. I never really believed in or cared for you, I only said that to keep you with me. And guess what? You really did the trick. People started to like me again and I became a hero. Then you started to get some of the fame as well, and I couldn't have that now. There was just one problem, how to get rid of you without ruining the reputation I gained. For a while I figured that I would just have to deal with you because you never really harmed me too much."_

_The foot started to burrow deeper into the bandaged warrior's back and the green-eye woman started screaming in pain._

"_Then you had to go give birth to that demon that killed my only son! You are the reason he is dead! Now you had to be disposed of and considering how weak you were, it was all too easy. You didn't even throw a punch nor have any chance of beating me. Of course, you blame me for keeping you that weak. The trouble is that you are naturally weak, I wouldn't be able teach you how to properly fight because you can't even learn. That is why you can't and will never be stronger than me!" Xena said with hatred._

_Suddenly, Gabrielle felt the strong hands lift her up. Then she was back at the cliff that she had continuously fallen off of in this strange place, but finally she realized that it was the cliff Xena threw her off of. Then without even saying a word the brunette dropped Gabrielle off the cliff._

Her eyes snapped open and she was now kneeling on the floor of the old man's house. Standing in front of her was the old warrior himself staring at her.

He spoke, "Just as I suspected."

In confusion, the blond said, "What happened? What was that powder you used on me?"

Pulling out a small bit powder, he responded, "This is a hallucinogen that I found many years ago. The purpose of it is to create false images that elicit strong emotions from people. Though it has no official name, I call it 'Emōshon hokori.' There is a reason I used this on you. With most people they will simply walk around in a daze for a while and see sensitive images. There are a few, like yourself who will become immobilized by the powder and enveloped in a false world. This world will continue to torture you for a while."

Gabrielle quickly asked, "What does this mean?"

Shirou said, "In the world of man, emotions affect people in two types of ways. A majority can use the untamed emotions to make progress and gain great focus. Myself, Xena, and that Callisto person you have mentioned are in this category, and would be not as greatly affected by the powder. The other and smaller group, are those who are weakened by untamed emotions and become unable to neither learn nor focus. You, my student, are in that category, and as you saw became enveloped by the powder."

"Does that mean that I will always be weaker than Xena?" Gabrielle said with distress.

A small grin formed on the old man's face and said, "Not at all. In fact you can still become more powerful than her."

"I once met a warrior who was like you, with little emotional control, and was hardly able to learn simple fighting techniques. His family saw him as a disgrace and banished him from their home until he could become more powerful. I didn't see the warrior again for four years. One day, one of my legions went into a town after a long campaign. A few of my best men were drunk one night and decided to fight an emotionless warrior, but were killed quickly by the man. I wanted to meet this emotionless warrior, so sought him out at a local pub. To my surprise, it was the warrior banished by his family. I asked him how he became so strong in such a short time, but he didn't answer me. Deciding that this man was right for my army, I offered him to join. He accepted and for several years he fought with great skill in my forces. One day, he finally told me that a few monks at a monastery taught him how to control his emotions. He said could direct his emotions into making him learn faster than any normal man, gain greater focus, fool others from the truth, and make him think faster than many. One of the effects of this mastery is the ability to seem emotionless, which can cause fear in others." Shirou spoke, looking at several swords hanging on a wall.

The old man looked back to Gabrielle and said, "Others cannot master their emotions the way he could. Not even I. However, you will be able to learn such control and when you do everything will become easier."

"How can I learn this type of control?" The bandaged warrior said with intrigue in her eyes.

Shirou said, "I may not be able to control my emotions the way he could, but I have found many ways to teach someone this control. For the next few weeks, after your morning exercises, we will be focusing on learning to master your emotions. Soon you will learn things faster than ever and will be able to extract your revenge."

**AN: Thanks for those who have waited a long time for me to post this chapter. I hope to have the next chapter up in two weeks.**

**Unfortunately, this was a hard chapter to write because of the difficulty of describing the ideas that I wanted to convey. I am still not sure that I did it one hundred percent correctly.**

**Some clear up from questions. I am again very sorry about the brown-eyed Xena mistake I will do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again. The terms that I use like 'Moons' or 'candle marks' are replacing 'Month' and 'Hours'. Most questions in the review are going to be answered later in the story. I don't think I ever established the ages of certain characters. At the first chapter Gabrielle is 18 and Xena is 28.**

**Hey, would you like me to clear up any non-English words that I use? Just ask me if so.**

**Thanks again for all your support.**

**Thank you Jinxie2013, ivo1617, Ahkiken, Kichuki, Rowan, Friendly Advice, Fluval66, Leonie1988, crvenashkorpija, J-Mith, nannygirl, Rox5755, K, and any Guests; for the reviews. They are always appreciated.**

**I always welcome any reviews (it helps out a lot).**

**Keep on reading,**

**Der Schatten**


	6. Chapter 6: Tale of the Eastern Death

**Chapter 6, The Present: Tale of the Eastern Death**

It was night time on the desert with a campfire going to keep the travelers warm. Eve was attending to the still unconscious Virgil, while Xena had set up the temporary camp. They immediately left the town after their confrontation with Tsuki, and made it about a half day's distance from the settlement.

Xena could see that her daughter was a little distraught from her fight with the marked warrior. There was concern in the mind of the Warrior Princess as well. She couldn't have been fighting those three other warriors for more than fifteen minutes until reaching the plaza, where she found the younger brunette at the mercy of the short warrior. This meant that either her daughter did not fight well on sand, or that this Tsuki figure was slightly better that she had thought. The warrior's cryptic message to her daughter caused questions that Eve had yet found the time to answer for. Questions were also raised when looking at the faces of the villagers as they rode off. These faces were of disbelief, that as if they could not comprehend how the trio was able to leave alive. The Warrior Princess was also reminded that she had heard this Tsuki's name in conversation before. At first glance, Xena thought that the short warrior didn't appear to be special; but after taking the time to think, the signs seemed to be stacking up the other way.

Sandy footsteps were moving towards the older brunette. The former Roman warlord sat next to her mother and stared at the soothing flickering of the fire.

"How's Virgil?" The Blue-eyed woman asked, handing her daughter a water pouch.

After taking a quick sip, Eve said, "He'll be alright… Just unconscious. I couldn't find any signs of further injury."

"Good" Replied Xena, satisfied that the Greek male was just basically asleep.

The Warrior Princess, now concerned about the younger woman, looked at the numerous cuts and bruises that her daughter had sustained during the fight.

"What about you?" Xena said with concern in her voice, "You look like Tartarus."

Eve gave her mother a small reassuring smile and said, "I'll be alright. I've sustain worse wounds than this."

Not totally satisfied, the older brunette pressed some more, "How are you mentally? You still seem shaken up from the fight."

"If anything, mother, I am just grateful." The younger woman said quietly.

"Now that we are settled in, would you mind telling me who that warrior was that nearly killed you?" The blue-eyed warrior asked .

Wanting to evade answering her mother's question because of the complexity of the explanation, Eve gave her the simplest answer, "Her name is Tsuki Kizuato Senshi."

Getting a little frustrated, Xena firmly said, "Stop avoiding my question and tell me about this warrior. Why was she able to beat you? What did she mean by 'feel lucky?' Why have I heard her name recently? Who is she?"

Sighing, the younger brunette started to answer, "Mother you have to understand that…"

She was disrupted by some moaning noises were being made on the other side of the campfire. It was recognized by both the women that the noise was coming from Virgil. They both got up and quickly moved to the unconscious man to make sure he was alright.

After quickly analyzing the situation, Xena stated, "He's having a nightmare."

The other brunette nodded in confirmation and was relieved at the news.

Then Virgil mumbled out a word in distress, "Eve…"

(XWP)

_That kick to the head was really powerful as the Greek male had not been able to have any dreams up to this point. Early on, there brief thought that he had been killed. It passed him by because he knew that something would have happened if it did. Then memories started running past him. One with him tending to Argo II back in the stable. He remembered how soothing it was to take care of the horse. Another with his mother chasing him and his siblings out of their pub after playing a prank on her. He remembered how funny it was to play those ridiculous jokes. Then a memory of his father holding him up on his shoulders. The warmth that memories of his father brought was intense._

_Then he was finally inside one of the memories. After a quick look around he knew what this memory was because of how it haunted him so. It was the memory of his father's death at Eve's… no, Livia's hands. He remembered that the day before Xena went off to garner some help from Emperor Augustus. However, both he and his father knew that with the rate the Bitch of Rome was moving that the Warrior Princess wouldn't be able to reach the local temple in time. They needed to delay the Roman Warlord in some way, and after much discussion, they decided that Joxer would go get captured by the Livia's forces. This would hopefully cause the Roman's to stop and prepare some form of execution the next morning. Then it would be up to Virgil to free his father and create a skirmish to buy Xena some time._

_The plan at first was going well with his father's capture making the Livia's forces slow down to prepare an execution for high noon. The younger Greek male posed as a Roman soldier and was able to disrupt the execution. Suddenly, the Warrior Princess showed up and was helping to fight off the forces. Taking his chance, Virgil freed his father from his binds and gave him a sword. The dream always begins at this moment._

_He saw himself handing over the extra sword to Joxer._

_His dad says, "Don't you think you were cutting a little too close. If you hadn't shown up when you did, I would be 'Joxer the Limbless' right now."_

"_Just trying to buy as much time as we can." Virgil said to the old man before slicing through an incoming soldier._

_After fighting for a few minutes father and son were standing back to back, battling off the Romans. Then the younger Greek saw a break in the chaos of the forces for them to exit from._

"_Dad, we need to get out of here. I see a path we can get through." Virgil informed._

"_The get going, I'll follow your lead." His father said._

_The man started to create a path through the line, even though the Virgil's mind was screaming for him to turn around. He now knew that Joxer stumbled over a fallen warrior, which allowed Livia to come up behind the unsuspecting Virgil._

_She was just about to kill him when there was a shout, "Joxer, get down!"_

_Then the sickening noise of metal meeting flesh was heard. Seeing this memory so many time, the young Greek knew what had just happened, but still hoped that when he looked back that his father wasn't dead. This wasn't to be the case. He saw Joxer standing with Livia's sword through his chest. The Bitch of Rome then removed the sword from his chest and allowed his father to fall to the ground. Virgil screamed in despair and wanted nothing more than to save his father._

_He ran over to his father and propped his head up on his left hand. Xena was there just a second later with a look of deep anguish on her face._

_Not looking anywhere in particular, Joxer said, "Did we delay them?"_

"_Yes, we delayed them for just enough time." Virgil said while trying to prevent the tears from coming down his face._

_His father turned to him and saw the sadness on him._

"_Hey, don't feel sad. I am actually happy that I survived this long." He said with a little blood coming out of his smiling mouth._

_Trying to create false hope, the younger Greek said, "You'll survive dad, we just need to patch you up and…"_

_He was cut off by his father's hand grabbing his right arm and said, "Stop… I know that there is no hope for me."_

_A moment passed before Joxer spoke again, "Don't be sad, Virgil. Try to be happy."_

_Tears were now streaming down his face, while saying, "I don't know if I can."_

"_Try to find the things that make you the happiest in life, no matter where it takes you." His father said with heavy breaths._

"_Yes sir." He replied._

_Then his father turned towards Xena who was trying to hold in her tears._

"_I hated you for a long time, Xena. Even when I started to travel with you while you were pregnant, I still hated you. But once you disappeared I started to hate myself for hating my friend. She would have never wanted me to hate you… Before I go, I want to say that I forgive you and I am sorry for hating you." Joxer said with several cough prolonging his words._

_Originally, what his father said to Xena had confused him, but now he understood the meaning. Tears were now falling down her face as the Warrior Princess said, "That is all in the past. I don't blame you for hating me when I still hate myself."_

_He touched her cheek and said, "Please, try to forgive yourself. She loved you too much to want that."_

_She grabbed his hand in friendly acknowledgement of his words. There were a few more bloody coughs to signal that the end was near._

"_It looks so…" It was his last words before his body went limp._

_Tears were now pouring out of his face, and there was nothing but complete sorrow in his mind. His father was dead just like that. Then he turned his head away and saw Livia staring from far away with a devilish grin. He wanted nothing more than to kill her for causing his pain._

_Then something changed about the memory, Livia looked at her bloody hands. Livia… Eve now had a face of inward disgust as she fell to her knees. She was no longer in her Roman outfit, but the attire she was wearing that day._

"_It isn't just this guy. It's you, it's the last man, woman and child that my actions have killed somebody's loved one…" Said Eve's voice that was being expressed out of thin air._

_Then blood was starting to cover her entire body as she was crying in anguish. She looked broken and defeated. Forgetting his earlier anger, Virgil now wanted nothing more than to help the young brunette._

_Eve's voice was heard again, "…And every time I find another person like him, it slowly feels like a piece my soul dies because of the pain that person has gone through because of me…"_

_Then a smaller figure came up behind her. Immediately the Greek male recognized it as that concealed warrior that knocked him out. This warrior only had her left side of her body in the light, since he never saw the right side. For some reason this figure brought a sense of fear to Virgil, as if she had appeared in his nightmares before. The warrior took out her sword and prepared to attack the distraught woman._

"_Eve." Virgil said, while starting to run towards her._

_Every step he took forward seemed to push him even further backwards. The warrior was now in position to attack._

"_No, Eve!" Virgil shouted, not wanting the woman to die. _

_Then the warrior stabbed Eve through the heart. The pain on the young brunette's teary face was immense. Everything suddenly disappeared._

(XWP)

"No!" Virgil shouted upon waking up.

Then he realized that he was no long in his dream world and that it was night time. He looked around and saw the concerned faces of Eve and Xena. There was also a sharp pain on the side of his head.

"Hey now, it's okay Virgil. It was just a nightmare." Eve said with a soothing voice.

The fear of losing Eve dissipated now that he could see her face. He slowly sat up and started to notice that they were in a small encampment. He tried to speak but found that his throat was too dry.

He hoarsely said, "Water…"

The young brunette handed him a water pouch. Quickly, the Greek male was drinking a large amount of the pouch. Once he was done, Virgil set the pouch down next to him.

"How do you feel right now? Any pain?" Eve said with concern.

"Minus the pain on my head, I am perfectly fine." Virgil said touching the spot where it hurt.

Then he saw the cuts and bruises on Eve and said, "What about you? You look like a worn out training pole."

The younger female gave a smile and said, "I am fine. Most of them have healed up by now."

"What happened? How did we get here?" The male warrior asked.

Eve said, "What do you remember of the fight?"

"I remember everything 'til I was kicked in the face. Then I went black." Virgil said clearly.

The young brunette went on to explain everything that happened after he was knocked out. Xena would add in a few details that she missed. The only thing that wasn't explained to the man was Tsuki's name. It slightly concern Virgil that Eve had nearly died from the fighting, but was relieved that the Warrior Princess made a timely save.

After explaining what had happen the Greek male said, "Well thank Aphrodite that you survived that fight. From what I saw she was a very difficult opponent."

Eve smiled and said, "I am just grateful that my mother was able to save me."

Xena tried to be reassuring by saying, "Hey, I'm sure you would have found a way out of that situation yourself."

Knowing who it was that she fought Eve couldn't even take her mother's kind gesture seriously.

"Hey, did you ever get the name of that warrior." Virgil said, starting to drink from the pouch again.

The blue-eyed warrior responded, "She said her name was 'Tsuki.'"

After hearing the name, the Greek male started to choke and cough out the water he had been drinking.

Once he stopped coughing, Virgil turned to the young female with wide eyes and said, "Do you mean we were in combat with who I think we were?"

"Yes, it was _that_ Tsuki." Eve said looking at the ground in discomfort.

The man now had the look like he had just survived from a near death scenario. This surprised the older warrior, that a simple name of a human could elicit such a reaction from two strong people in a matter of seconds.

"I guess I never did see the right side of her face to see the scar… Thank god we're alive." Said Virgil with a voice that showed he was still stunned.

Now impatient about having had her questions of this warrior ignored, the Warrior Princess said, "That's it, I want to know everything about this warrior, and don't avoid the questions anymore."

The younger brunette knew that she had to explain, "Mother, you were under for a long time and the world has been through a lot since then. There have been many other warlords than myself. The most well-known and feared warlord is the warrior named Tsuki Kizuato Senshi."

"What has she done to deserve this amount of fear?" The older brunette questioned.

Virgil's headache and fear caused him to quickly exclaimed, "What has she done?! She and her forces massacred millions of lives. Not to sound callous, but the things that Eve did as Livia paled in comparison to Tsuki."

Eve cut in saying, "Calm down Virgil. We don't know exactly if you sustained a concussion or not."

The Greek male heeded the former Roman warrior's advice and regained his composure. Taking a second to think about how to talk about the marked warrior, the young brunette sat next to Virgil.

Eve turned to her mother and said, "Tsuki has been called by many different names like the Eastern Death, the Soulless Blade, the Demon of Jappa, and the Ire of Gods. It would be best if this story was told from the beginning. This is going to be a long story so you should probably sit down."

A nod came from the blue-eyed warrior as she sat down prepared to listen to her daughter.

With a breath, Eve began, "The first confirmed mentions of Tsuki were only about a year-and-a-half after your 'death.' She appeared on the large Island of Jappa, which is east of Chin. There was a small collection of bandits that were slaughtering caravans and were being led by a mysterious, concealed woman warrior. A distinguished group of eastern mercenaries known as Khulē ghāvōṁ was hired to the take down these bandits. However, Tsuki eliminated all of them…"

Xena interrupted, "Wait a minute. She eliminated Khulē ghāvōṁ that was led by Jagrav?"

Surprised, the young brunette said, "Yes… How did you know about them? They were not well-known in Greece."

"I didn't even know the name of the group until now." The Greek male interjected.

The older warrior said, "They were briefly in Greece one time and I happened to meet most of them early in my pregnancy with you."

"Oh, I see." Eve said.

Then she continued, "After her victory, her group started raiding villages in Jappa and usually slaughtered the villagers. This group would gain the name of The Fear, for what people felt when they were spotted near their homes. The Emperor of Jappa began trying to stop her, but Tsuki's ability as a tactician and a warrior helped in humiliating some of the Emperor's best military advisors. All who opposed were killed no matter whether they were man, woman, or child. In a years' time she ransacked most of the island and her forces were skilled. She decided to take her group and begin attacking the main lands of Kor, Manchu, and Chin. Many different kings, lords, and emperors sent massive forces to stop this emotionless warrior but were annihilated. As Tsuki's forces won more battles, they garnered the notice more warriors from many lands and they would join her in hopes of earning titles to their names. She spent a few years in these lands, destroying nations and massacring innocents. She then moved into India, Mongol, Tibet, and Scyathia, performing more horrors. At this time, Greece, Rome and Persia were becoming aware about Tsuki, the moon scared warrior that butchered the people of the Eastern Lands. Greek bards gave her the nickname 'the Eastern Death.' Many now feared that she would continue in the direction of the west and rampage their lands. So the lands of Rome and Greece sent supplies for those who fought against Tsuki, some warriors even volunteered to fight her themselves. In the end, it didn't slow her down. As most from the west dreaded, she started to make her way across Persia winning against all sorts of forces. Greece and Rome were now in full panic mode, entire cities full of people were running west or north in the hopes they could avoid her slaughter."

Virgil jumped in, "I was around eight at the time, but I remember the clusters of people that would stay the night in their attempt to run away. Some of my friends' family packed up and left. Mom and dad nearly deserted our tavern out of fear for my siblings and me. Never will I forget the look of doom on every traveler's face at that time."

The blue-eyed woman then said, "What happened then? I doubt she got to Greece."

Eve said, "You're right, fortunately we had one legendary hero who was strong enough to take down her and The Fear."

"Hercules." Xena said smile proud for her friends.

Eve nodded and continued, "In the tales it was said that he defeated Tsuki and eliminated most of her forces at Mount Kula."

This confused the Warrior Princess, she knew that the half-god would never take the life of any human. She made a mental note to ask Hercules about this when she met up with him again.

"This effectively ended The Fear and the terror it spread for seven years. However, Tsuki was still left alive and disappeared for around a years' time. Then she reappeared back in Chin, leading the forces of one of region's remaining lords for a short while. She expanded the man's territory and turned it into a small empire. It is no surprise that she and the army performed a coup d'état that made her the new Empress of the land. She would be Empress for the next seven years and with most of the east still recovering from The Fear, she quickly expanded her territories. This empire took over most of Chin, Manchu, Kor, and Mongol; along with parts of Veit, Serbia, Tibet, India, Jappa, and Scythia. Then at the height of her reign, she vanished. The empire was in chaos without her and it split up into numerous nations. For the next three years nobody heard or saw the concealed warrior. Then she reappeared in Kor with a new goal. She started traveling alone to help villages out when in crisis and eliminate any bandits, warlords, or evil rulers. Not many have heard that she has even returned." Eve said, becoming silent.

"I'll say, you seem to know more about Tsuki than I ever did." Virgil said.

Xena questioned, "How do you know so much about her?"

The young brunette tilted her head downwards and said, "She was once an inspirational figure to a young Livia. I couldn't get enough stories about her victories and massacres."

Deciding to change the questions, the older brunette said, "What did she mean back in the village when she said 'feel lucky'?"

Eve answered, "The reason is that I have met and fought her already… Several moons before you returned I was in this region with one of my best legions taking down the Followers of Eli. I had hoped that I could destroy the temple in Jerusalem and finish off the Way of Love. Ares was opposed to this idea because he said that his powers didn't reach that far. If I should run into trouble, he could not help me. I ignored his warnings and went through with the campaign. During this time, we raided several villages and killed any of the Followers that we could find, executing them in tortuous ways."

Talking and remembering about what she had done to the Followers in this region was bringing her much pain. Then a hand touched the brunette's back. She turned to see that it was Virgil with a comforting face. This made her smile remembering that he promised that he would help her. Watching this small interaction, the older warrior was satisfied to see that the two were forming a better relationship.

The young brunette continued, "In different towns that we attacked had some rumors floating around that Tsuki was back and in this land. At first I took it as rumors, just wives' tales. Then one night a group of bandits stole some of our supplies. I and a few soldiers didn't take them as much of a threat and chased after them hoping to have some fun. By the time we caught up with them, they were already dead with a small group of warriors near the carcasses. The leader of this group was obviously Tsuki. When I first saw her, I was in total awe because to me, I was meeting somebody who I had believed was a hero. I began to introduce myself but I was stunned when she knew my name and what I had been doing. Then she asked me what I was doing in this region and I informed her about my goals for crushing the Way of Love. After hearing this, she offered to join me in taking down the Followers. It was not hard to say yes to the offer because I only knew her as the Eastern Death and didn't suspect deception. We made plan for which paths we should take to reach the city. Originally, I was going to take the direct route through the desert, but she convinced me that it would better to go take a longer path in the mountainous areas."

"There was a village along this path that we would run into and we planned that my forces would enter loot the settlement. My troops and I entered the town, only to find it deserted and soon were hit by numerous explosions. I had only gotten a few scrapes from the bombardment but most of my men were not as fortunate. Tsuki entered the village with a large force, and started to slaughter my men. She had ordered the warriors to not go near me so she could face me herself. When we started to fight, I questioned why she was doing this. She told me that long ago she had made a deal that she would not harm the Followers of Eli. Then she informed me that she planned to kill me for my heinous crimes. Early in the fight, I was naïve to think that I could actually match up with her but she was undeniably better. Soon I was defeated and she was in a position to kill me. I believed this was the end because only a handful of people have had their lives spared by her. For some reason, she spared me and told me that I could leave with my life if I promised never to return. I left for Rome with the small number of men I had left, since most had been killed. The reason why she said 'feel lucky' is that not only is rare to be spared by her once but twice is unheard of. "

Xena had a new question, "How good of a fighter is she?"

Eve shook her head and said, "She's an incredible warrior and she lives up to her legends. She's adaptable, quick, evasive, aware, focused, durable, and powerful. You and her have different fighting styles but are overall at the same level. If you and she were to fight, I couldn't tell you who would come out victorious."

Then something else came into the blue-eyed warrior's mind, "Wait, how old was she when she started? Because even if she was in her twenties when she first appeared, she would undoubtedly be too old to fight."

"She doesn't age." Virgil interjected, "Nobody knows her exact age but the legends say that she doesn't age."

The older brunette turned to her daughter with confusion and said, "How? Is she a half-god or immortal?"

The younger woman replied, "Up until now what you have been told is knowledge that I am certain to be fact, but the rest of what I know is pure speculation from myths. The speculation started when, as Empress, she was said to announced it to several of her generals that she could not age. Nobody is certain whether this is fact or fiction, but there is much about her that nobody truly knows. It isn't even certain that she is a human…"

The Warrior Princess interrupted, "Hold on, nobody knows whether she is human or not? Doesn't somebody know about her past?"

Eve said, "Considering the inability to age and mounds of people she's killed without emotion, it raises the question of her humanity. When it comes to her past it was once said best from a Roman bard I heard, 'her past is as unknown to the world as the shapes of her face or the color of her hair.'"

"She has been an important warlord for around twenty-five years and nobody knows what she looks like?" Xena said in disbelief.

Virgil said, "She has always kept her face and hair commonly hidden behind a black mask that only reveals her eyes and the scar. Unlike other female warriors, she has normally kept her body in clothing that covers a majority of her skin. Anybody who might have seen her face has died before ever living to describe. All that is known is that she is short, a female, has green eyes, and has an infamous scar shaped like a crescent moon around her right eye."

Intrigued, the blue-eyed warrior asked, "Can either of you tell me about the scar."

"The scar is probably the most known physical feature of Tsuki and has been a symbol of her horrors. The origins of the scar are unfortunately also left up to speculation. One theory is a seal that keeps her in a human form instead of her demonic one. Another is that it is the place where she tore out all of her emotions from her soul." The former Roman warlord said.

"You mentioned a couple times about her being an emotionless warrior. Could you elaborate on this?" The older brunette warrior asked.

The Greek male said, "Nobody has ever seen her get emotional ever. The every tale about her tells how she never showed joy or sorrow in killing all the millions that she slaughtered. A famous tale dictates that when her soldiers were unable to defend their position against an army of twenty-thousand she personally went out and killed them all of her opponents. The look she gave her men before going into battle showed no hint of emotion, and a witness said she kept that face throughout the entire battle."

"In my two encounters with her, never once did she give the hint of emotion in her eyes and always spoke in a cold tone of voice. When fighting her it becomes unnerving to stare into her cold eyes." Eve said.

Confusion set upon the Warrior Princess because she remembered that she saw for a short while seeing many emotions in the eyes of Tsuki. It was true that those emotions quickly disappeared, but it still made Xena silently wonder why she had seen this when many had not.

There was one more final question the blue-eyed woman had that she doubted there would be an answer to, "Do you know why she stated that she was going to be the one to kill me?"

As it was expected, both of them were only able to give a shrug in response. It was at this point that the group decided that they should all get in their tents and get some rest. Virgil was the first to enter his small tent, since his headache was still keeping him exhausted. A few moments later Eve went to her tent as well. The older brunette finally felt went in her tent to lie down on her sack after she took care of the campfire.

Sleep did not come quickly to the Warrior Princess as her thoughts were still occupied by the marked warrior. Xena wasn't totally surprised that there had been other terrible warlords that had appeared during her long slumber. It was surprising that there happened to be a warrior that caused such fear in the minds of some of the strongest people she knew. Hearing her daughter and Virgil talk about the horrors the short warrior performed was strange. She had known so many warlords that boasted about themselves in excruciating detail, but to find one shrouded in such mystery as Tsuki intrigued her.

Many things were left unresolved that caused questions in her mind. What made this warrior tick? There had to be a reason that made the marked warrior goes kill millions of lives and then protect the innocent. The lack of information from tales gave no emotional reasons for whether she actually had a purpose behind her actions. Was the warrior really as good as legends say she is? Not that the blue-eye warrior didn't trust her daughter, but it seemed rather unlikely that any warrior could take down twenty-thousand men let alone survive the encounter. It could be possible that the legends of her skills have caused people to exaggerate her true abilities, or there was the chance that the tales were underestimating Tsuki's true skills. Finally, why did this mysterious legend want to kill her? It might be because of the celebrity it would bring of taking down the Warrior Princess. This didn't seem like a viable answer considering that she already had many titles to her name. However, it was currently the best answer she had.

(XWP)

Rafeeq was in an anxious mood at the moment with a bruise on his face from the fight with the Greek male earlier that day. The men of the camp were all called to wait outside Tsuki's tent for announcement the concealed warrior was about to make. It had been several hours since they returned to camp and the marked warrior had been secluded inside the tent the entire time.

Aasim, who had a slight limp from fighting the older warrior, walked over to Rafeeq and said, "Do you know what this is all about?"

"I am just as in the dark as the rest of the group." Rafeeq said while shaking his head.

Aasim said, "Maybe she wants to have us work on our techniques since we failed to defeat any of the warriors?"

"No… If she wanted to do that then she would have done it when we returned." Rafeeq said with certainty.

Aasim started up, "Could it be possible that…"

The tent opened up and the marked warrior walked out in her local outfit. Everybody quickly stopped talking to pay attention to the person who had been training them to defend fellow Followers of Eli. The green-eyes looked their usual cold and emotionless look making it impossible to read her intentions.

"You were all gathered here for a specific announcement, which is that I will be leaving this region and will no longer be leading your group as of tomorrow." Tsuki said plainly.

There was a sense of shock going through the group in the disbelief of her words.

One man in the back asked, "Why are you leaving? Don't you still have a commitment to defend the Way of Love?"

The concealed warrior turned her head slightly and said, "My reasons are my own and the commitment that I had made with Eli himself only was to last one calendar year. The only reason I have stayed on until now is to make sure you are ready to defend this land."

Aasim spoke up, "Are we truly ready? Eight of us were defeated by only three warriors today."

"You forget who you fought, Aasim. You not only faced Livia, who is known for her mastery of the sword. Then there was the Greek male, who showed great skill. Finally, you fought Xena, whom I trust you know about her ability. In any case, you all have shown the skills of good teamwork during the last two moons, and one loss doesn't replace that… Let me put this simply, you are ready." The short woman said with her cold tone.

Rafeeq said, "We are grateful for your trust in us. However, that still doesn't erase the fact that Livia is still in the area…"

Tsuki cut him off and said, "I not believe that Livia… Eve will try anything. Xena gave me her word as the 'Defender of the Faith' that she would not intentionally harm any of the Followers. In accordance with your faith, you shall not allow any unwarranted harm to befall her. If she does do something, you can send word to me and I will take care of all three, personally."

Most men were tentatively satisfied by this point with what she had said.

The marked warrior started to turn around to return to her tent when one final man asked, "Can we know where you are heading? In case we need to contact you."

Tsuki stopped and coldly said, "Greece."

**AN: Whew… this chapter took a long time to write. It wasn't that it was tough to write, but that I got busier than I thought I would during these past two weeks. My days have been rather long and by the time I got to sit down at the computer I was far too exhausted to think about writing any words. I am grateful that I have finally finished this chapter and I hope you find it enjoyable.**

**I have been waiting a while to reach this chapter because its content is mostly exposition. This chapter is meant to give content that can help explain some questions you might have had and also create several new ones that will be settled in future sections of the story. As you have noticed that there is not a lot of action in this chapter and I apologize.**

**I can't find a whole lot of things that need to be cleared up at this moment. If you have a pressing question, please send me a message and I will respond as quickly as I can.**

**The next chapter has no exact date of release because I need to catch up in the writing. I may have the next chapter done soon but I probably won't release it until I have the successive one mostly complete. The latest I would say that I would wait to release is three weeks. I know it is a long wait but unfortunately my life has many things that have to get done first.**

**Thanks again for all your support.**

**Thank you jelpy0165, Jinxie2013, ivo1617, Ahkiken, Kichuki, Rowan, Friendly Advice, Fluval66, Leonie1988, crvenashkorpija, J-Mith, nannygirl, Rox5755, K, and any Guests; for the reviews. They are always appreciated.**

**I always welcome any reviews (it helps out a lot).**

**Thanks to all who follow, favorite, or just read this story.**

**Keep on reading,**

**Der Schatten**


	7. Chapter 7, The Past Part 3

**Chapter 7, The Past Part 3: In Her Memory and A Dark Name**

**In Her Memory**

The dirt trail was smooth for the brunette warrior as she sat on top of her trusted mare moving towards the nearest village. Clouds were hanging in the sky creating shade from the rays of sunlight. This was a perfect day for the Warrior Princess to start helping the world again.

It had been around eight moons since she lost her only child and committed her heinous act against her friend. During that time the blue-eyed warrior spent this time feeling the pain of both losses. When things started to look hopeless for her, Autolycus came along looking for answers about the rumored death of the blond bard. The thief had found the facts unpleasant but found the once strong female warrior starting to become a shell that was full of remorse. He decided to travel with Xena in order to help a friend in need. At first the brunette woman was annoyed by the man's presence since she felt that no one should journey with her anymore. She berated him often and was rude to the man, but her friend held steadfast in the belief that this was going to help her get through this. After a two moon, she finally accepted his company and understood why he was sticking with her. The pain was starting to become bearable when she finally accepted that her son was dead and that she killed the green-eyed Amazon. Just the presence of being around someone that she could talk with was doing wonders for her mental stability. There were still some nights where she would become emotional, he would be there with a friendly shoulder to cry on or be willing to take a few bruises when she was angry.

When they both had traveled with each other for three-and-a-half moons the Warrior Princess finally began training again to build up the strength she had loss. She began to hone her senses again and practice her sword skills with the help of the agile thief. Within a moon she felt like her old warlord-kicking self. Then Autolycus told her two weeks ago that he was going to head in another direction knowing that there was no more that he could do for her, and he heard there was a giant ruby somewhere that the 'King of Thieves' needed to steal. They said their respected goodbyes to each other and separated at a fork in the road. Xena was grateful to the thief for what he had done for her. The blue-eyed warrior still procrastinated about interacting with others for a little more as she often thought about the her wonderful child who would never got to grow-up and the beautiful bard who the brunette never admitted her love to.

Today, however, the Warrior Princess was finally ready to fight for the common good. Two days ago she had ran into a scout of a local warlord by the name of Denes and 'persuaded' him into telling her that his master was going to be raiding a village two days from here. The brunette started to head in the direction of the town in hopes that she could help innocents from being killed.

She arrived over the hill side and saw the village was under attack by Denes' large forces. From this distance she could tell that there were two figures defending the village and currently holding up fairly well. Even though the blue-eyed warrior already had an idea of who the two defenders were, she took out a stolen monocular that Autolycus had left with her to make sure. As she had suspected, the two figures were the legendary Hercules and his agile ally Iolaus. The two were doing their best in fighting off the forces but it could only take one lucky hit from one of Denes' men to tip the battle the other way. If she was to join the battle that she and the two men would undoubtedly succeed in defending the town. There was hesitation in the part of the brunette warrior; she had hoped to not run either of these men so soon, let alone the both of them. It was obvious that the both of them would have questions for the blue-eyed woman about Gabrielle and she wasn't sure that she wanted to answer them. Then Xena remembered that she was not only doing this for the greater good but to honor the ideals the bard had strived for while she was alive. With that the Warrior Princess got Argo into a fast paste and began to give her customary battle cry.

(XWP)

This battle was becoming a struggle for the mighty Hercules; it seemed like that every ten men he would knock down ten more would fill in their place. The son of Zeus had to have guessed that he and Iolaus had fought well over one thousand men. It was unfortunate for him and his companion that Denes' men were more skilled fighter than expected. This did not deter from the fact that the endless barrage was starting to wear out the half-god and judging from the sloppy combat that the shorter man was displaying that he was already tired. After defeating the current wave of soldiers, long-haired man was able to quickly catch his breath and look at what was ahead of him. It looked like there was still another thousand men still waiting for orders and Denes was still standing behind his men.

A few days ago Herc and Iolaus were passing through this town when the villagers came to them and told them that the warlord was coming to ravage them. They begged that the two men defend their village, since they didn't have an army of their own. Not wanting to turn down a cry for help, the men agreed. Denes must have gotten word and brought the entirety of his forces.

There was a few shouts coming from warlord's men and suddenly more men were heading towards them.

The half-god turned to Iolaus, who was resting on one knee, and said, "Don't look now, Iolaus… but the next wave is coming."

The wavy haired man gave a sigh of frustration and said, "Can't they just give us one candle mark of rest? That's all I would need."

Silently Herc agreed with his short friend but knew that he currently couldn't do anything about it. The duo got back into a fighting position and waited for the new opponents. The next group of men had almost arrived when suddenly a new noise was being heard that stopped the Warlord's forces advance. It wasn't just any noise; it was all too familiar battle cry that both men hadn't heard in a while. Both the two men and Denes' forces turned to see the Warrior Princess arriving on top of Argo.

Seeing the brunette warrior reminded Hercules why Iolaus and he originally went to this town. Around seven moons ago the both of them were travelling different paths, but each of them had differently heard rumors that the blue-eyed woman killed Gabrielle. In order to find the truth, they teamed up together and started to track her down. However, the Warrior Princess had hidden her tracks rather well, causing the duo to only get leads that would steer them to a dead end. They tried to contact the Amazons for help but were given the cold shoulder for little explanation. Joxer, the only other person who could give some answers, had also disappeared. The more time they spent on their search the more they were inclined to believe the rumors. Both had speculated that it was possible that Xena had returned to her old ways but dismissed it because the old Xena wouldn't be in hiding. The brunette's extreme lack of presence had caused Herc to wonder if it was possible that she had killed herself in reaction to her action, even if would go completely against her style. The only reason he even conjured up the idea was that wasn't unlike the former warlord to treat her life so carelessly, the Prometheus incident being a prime example.

Her being here brought some relief to the half-god but absence of the blonde bard did not go unnoticed to him. With the lack of information, he wasn't yet entirely sure whether Xena had killed her and planned to discuss that with her later.

When she had gotten close enough to the battlefield, the blue-eyed warrior jumped off the mare and in front of the duo. She faced the army and pulled out her sword preparing to help against the oncoming opponents.

Herc said, "Thanks for coming, Xena."

With a grin she spoke, "You couldn't believe that I was going to let you two go and have all the fun."

"Believe me, Xena. This would have been a lot more fun if you had been here two candle marks ago." A still tired Iolaus said.

"Well, you know how temperamental Argo is. Two candle marks ago she wanted her lunch and wouldn't move a hair until I gave it to her." The brunette woman joked right before she took on the first of her opponents.

Fight became easy from this point on. The duo had gotten more energy knowing that their skilled friend was giving help. As the fight continued to wear on, they created a rotation to allow one of the three a chance to catch their breath while the other two fought off the invaders. The blue-eyed woman took the least amount of rests considering she had spent less time fighting Denes' forces than the other two.

When Hercules took his breaks he would watch the former warlord's body language to see if it could give any clues as to what she had been doing for the last several moons. At first he could tell that the brunette warrior was a little rusty which lead him to believe that she had not seriously fought in a while. Then the half-god continually notice that Xena was mostly knocking her opponents out and only killing as a defense measure. He had known that the woman warrior was no longer the blood thirsty person anymore but that she was still willing to kill an enemy in battle. This probably meant that she had done something that made her weary about killing.

After a couple hours of fighting, the three fighters had defeated almost all of Denes forces. The warlord decided that it was in his best interest to retreat, but Xena used her chakram to knock him off of his horse. Herc quickly captured the cowardly warlord, which caused most of his forces to run away or surrender. With the defense of the town completed the townsfolk exited their homes and celebrated their saviors. Some were a bit suspicious of the Warrior Princess because of the Gabrielle rumors but were ultimately grateful to her. All three of them were offered to stay the night at the local tavern for free. In the consideration that all three were tired and the sun was almost down, they took the offer.

Blue-eyed warrior was quick to lock herself up in her room to avoid both men. They both stayed in the main portion of the tavern for a couple candle marks, hoping that they would get a chance to talk to the woman warrior. Eventually the wavy haired man felt the exhaustion of the excruciatingly long battle and turned in for the night.

The half-god didn't wait much longer to head to his room but was unable to sleep. Thoughts of his friend and the one who was absent were preventing any rest to come to him. He continuously was replaying what he had saw of her during the battle in the hopes that he could answer the questions that had been plaguing his mind for the past six moons. All indications lead to the conclusion that the bard was indeed killed by the former warlord. Just to be sure, he still had to hear it from the brunette warrior's voice.

There was sorrow in the fact that the blonde girl was likely dead and a feeling of regret in not getting to know the girl, considering he always thought of her as a friend. When he first met her, it shocked him quite a bit that Xena would allow this naïve farmer's girl to follow her on her dangerous adventures. The then fifteen year-old had no ability to defend herself with either a weapon or her hands, and naïve notions that could get her into trouble. In every subsequent meeting, he saw this girl grow as a person and build a reputation for herself. The girl was growing smarter, had a fair amount of skill with a staff, and more realistic about the world. While not an advent reader, it was sometimes intriguing to read scrolls of Xena's adventures told in the tasteful words of the Battling Bard of Potedia, Queen of the Amazons. He also knew that the bard's presence would bring a smile to the serious face of the brunette warrior.

After this he had never really spent the time to personally know Gabrielle. He didn't know how big her family was, what she enjoyed to do, or what she thought about other people. From there infrequent interactions, it was obvious to him that she was a kind and loving spirit that was full of life. She was also a selfless individual that cared for others more than she did herself. It was obvious that she had great admiration for the blue-eyed warrior, when taking into account the interactions he'd seen between the two of them and how her scrolls about the warrior woman had a lot of feeling in them.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of brush moving outside. Moving towards the window, the long haired man was able to see a strong, woman like figure moving towards the town's stable. It was obvious that this figure was Xena and so the half-god left his room in silent pursuit. He reached the stable and peered inside the main entrance to see the Warrior Princess starting to untie Argo. This was in the attempt to leave the town without there being anymore encounters with the duo.

Hercules entered the stable and made his presence known, "Leaving so soon?"

Caught off guard, the brunette warrior quickly turned around and in the process, almost drew her sword on him.

She stared intently at him and said, "Are you going to stop me?"

"It depends if you will answer some questions or not." He said while leaning against the stable's main doors.

"What questions?" Xena said with annoyance.

Herc said, "Questions that you have apparently anticipated, considering you were trying to leave with Argo in the middle without even talking to us."

"I could just be in here to give him a brush. " The blue-eyed woman said half-heartedly.

The tall man shook his head and said, "Just stop, Xena. There is no way out of this; you're going to have to answer my questions."

The woman warrior said in a cold tone, "What if I don't want to answer your questions?"

"Then I'll just have to make sure you don't leave my sight until you do. If you leave the town, Iolaus and I will just have to tag along." The son of Zeus said.

To say that the Warrior Princess was frustrated was an understatement. The last thing Xena really wanted was to answer his questions and most likely bawl her eyes out explaining what happened, again. If she didn't, the duo would be following her until she did.

She chose the best possible path and said, "If I answer your questions, will you make sure that Iolaus won't come bugging me."

"You have my word." Herc said with content that he would finally be getting answers.

The brunette warrior sat on a nearby stool and said, "Go ahead."

"Are the rumors true that you killed Gabrielle?" The half-god asked.

Xena look down at the floor ashamed with her answer, "Yes"

This was the answer that he had expected but feared. Now he had to find out, "Why did you do it?"

The former warlord could already feel the tears forming in her eyes. It was apparent that if she started to tell the story that there would be a lot of tears. Even after all that time she spent improving her mental stability with the thief, recalling those events still brought tears to her eyes and probably would continue to do so for a long time.

She let her pride take over by turning to Argo and saying, "Look, if you're going to lock me up for what I did, just do so now…"

In Herc's mind he was starting to understand what the Warrior Princess was going through right now. It was likely that many of the thoughts that he felt when he believed that he killed Serena were going through the brunette warrior's head. Knowing Xena's pride to not show weakness, she was probably trying to hide the fact that she was on the verge of tears.

The son of Zeus moved toward the former warlord and turned her around to look his friend in the eyes. The pain of remorse was etched all across her face, and a few tears were streaking down her cheeks.

"Hey," The half-god said in a sympathetic voice, "It's just me. You know that I won't care if you cry. You will always be one of the toughest women I know."

The once long day became a long night as Xena went from a calm explanation to frenzies of remorseful tears. As a friend, Herc would sometimes just listen to his friend and at other points he would be comforting her in his arms. When the painful tale was finished, both sat in complete silence. One was trying to ingest all that he was told, while the other was gathering herself after breaking down, again.

The Warrior Princess stood up and ended the long silence, "Well, I better get going now."

The half-god was confused, "Why do you want to leave? You just told me what happened. While I am not happy about…"

"Look," The brunette woman interrupted, "I appreciate that you understand what happened and you want to help me feel better. But there is not much that you can for me. I spent the last several moons with Autolycus fixing my once broken emotional state and I feel better than I did. I know that I probably will never find any peace with this. However, I must continue to fight for the greater good… At least I must do so in her memory."

She got on Argo's back and made her way towards the main entrance of the stable.

Before leaving, she turned around and said, "Hey, have either you or Iolaus run into Joxer yet?"

The big man shook his head and said, "No we haven't."

"Well if you do, take care of him. He probably has a lot of anger towards me right now, and I don't know what he might do." She said in concern.

"Good bye, Hercules."

"Good luck, Xena. Keep in contact."

With that Xena rode off into the beginning of a new sunrise. Hercules was left hoping that his friend would find peace from what happened… someday.

(XWP)

**A Dark Name**

It was cold day on top of Mount Kenashi but it didn't seem to bother young woman as they were practicing sword forms in the court yard. A sense of nothingness was impressed on her face, as she was wearing her standard black training outfit with a bandage still covering her face. The teacher was looking on with a dark pride, seeing his student complete an advanced sequence in perfection.

In five moons since Shirou had discovered that Gabrielle's emotions were preventing her from making progress, she had become an entirely different person. For three moons, the blonde was mainly training on controlling her feelings, while doing her morning exercises. The old man had taken the many scrolls and lessons he had to find a path that would harness those emotions. Often it was found that emotions have energy that gives them strength in the human mind and that normal people had no ability in controlling this energy. The small amount of people like Gabrielle's emotional aptitude was different. It was possible for her to remove the energy in her emotions and redirect it into fueling her focus, logic, knowledge, and overall awareness. What remained were useless thoughts that could be easily dismissed.

For a long while the former bard would spend candle marks in meditation to master her control over this energy. At first, the former bard had a hard time regulating the energy of one emotion. When she finally was able to harness the energy into her focus and logic, it made a snowball effect on the speed that it took to redirect the energy.

Then she had to become familiar enough with directing this energy to the point that it would be natural. It was practiced to the point that she would unconsciously block off emotions was trying to garner through worldly stimuli. Simple stimuli like being surprised with a smack to the back of the head or killing a defenseless animal elicited no feelings what so ever.

Though, it took more time to harness the emotions of complex stimuli for people like Callisto, Solan, and Xena. She would tackle each emotion associate to a person and redirect the energy behind it. Eventually, the blonde woman had regulated all emotions connected to anybody and could quickly make them disappear while in the hallucinations of Emōshon hokori. The only problem was the blue-eyed woman. When the Xena was only a thought, Gabrielle could easily control the emotions surrounding her. Under the effects of Emōshon hokori, it was the only thing that elicited emotional response and couldn't dismiss. Shirou told her to never forget what brunette had done to her and that the thoughts of revenge could still be thought of as an overall goal. Other emotions that were attached to her were not as easily defined making it hard to disconnect the energy and would continue to take time.

Considering that the former bard had completed in controlling the emotions in a quarter of a year, the old warrior returned to the previous training schedule. Shirou was impressed at the speed she learned to regulate her emotions compared to his friend's story. Gabrielle was still not considered a master because if she didn't take time daily to practice through meditation, she could allow some emotions to seep through. Until such time when she did not have to practice daily, there were two candle marks in the training schedule dedicated to meditation to continue emotional containment.

In the last two moons the former bard was retaining information at break neck speed and her fighting skills had improved exponentially. She had gained the ability understand several Eastern languages whether in a scroll or spoken. Fluently speaking languages were always tougher but she was close in the languages of Jappa and Chin. Her knowledge about the world seemed to rapidly expand. The Amazon was able to read a scroll only once and retain all of the information in great detail. Combat in both weapons and hand-tot-hand was now simple as the blonde could easily master many moves in one day. She had strong ability in two weaponless styles at this point and was learning three more. Her ease to learn with a sword was most impressive, even though she was far from a master. Also, once she learned something, she never lost it.

After two moons, Gabrielle's skills were to the point where Shirou suspected she could handle four or five opponents and come out victorious. He acquired this after several surprise attacks that he sprang on her at random times of the day and the experience he had would defeat her. However, she was drawing out the fights for longer stands of time with strong focus, logic, and awareness. It would always intrigue the old man on how creative she was with the moves she knew or made up in combat. As her emotional mastery got better, the former warrior suspected that the young girl would gain combat skill at a faster rate.

At this moment Shirou believe that the blonde practicing in front of her could make his dark dreams a reality. With the sun setting in the west, it became clear that practice was ready to end.

"Gabrielle, we are done training for the day. We will continue on this form tomorrow. For now, let us go for a walk to cool us down and then rest to restore our lost energy." Shirou said standing up from his mat.

"Yes sensei." Gabrielle said with no emotion and returning her practice sword to its sheath.

Shirou started to move towards gravel path as he said, "I have a few important things to tell you during this walk."

The Amazon walked alongside the old man and said, "I suppose one of the things you want to discuss is that the bandages on my face will come off soon."

Slightly surprised, Shirou said, "Yes, I have determined that the risk of infection for that scar has dissipated and as of tomorrow, they will no longer cover your face. How you were able to determine this? I haven't mentioned that scar in a few moons."

"I have notice that you have been decreasing the quality and amount of bandages, which means that the risk of infection has declined. Considering it has gotten to the point where it only covers the area of the scar, I came to the conclusion that it would soon be something we would discuss." The former bard said in a calculative voice, while wiping her uncovered (left) side of the face of sweat.

The heighten awareness that his student had already gain was astonishing to the bearded man. Her emotional training has been and will continue to be a success.

This lead to his next sentences, "There is another matter I would like to discuss. After much consideration, I believe it is time to change your name."

"Could you explain your decision?" Gabrielle asked, looking down the path.

"For one thing, it involves your goal to kill Xena. If she hears word that you are still alive before you are ready to face her, you could prematurely be fighting her. With this advantage you can control the setting in which you face her. Also, when you leave this place you will need to have a fresh slate and using your old name will not allow you to accomplish this. Finally, in last seven moons you have changed drastically that you are no long close to the person that held the name, Gabrielle." Shirou explained.

"I agree." The Amazon said.

Minus the points the old man made, her name had become a constant reminder of the weak, naïve, and emotional girl she used to be. She believed she was on her way to becoming a skilled warrior, who had no fear or emotions for that matter. The name had become like a dead limb that needed to be cut off.

"What will my name be then?" Gabrielle asked.

Shirou furrowed his brows and said, "It should fit who you have become and are becoming. The name should become something that people will easily remember without you needing to promote yourself. With that said, I currently have no idea. Gabrielle will be fine for the time being."

The former bard nodded her head and said, "What else did you need to discuss with me?"

"Your continuing improvement of skills with the sword has been most impressive. If this progress continues, it won't be long before you will be allowed to create your own sword." Shirou said.

"Understood, sensei. That is all I assume?" The blonde said as they approached a fork in the road.

"Yes it is. Are you going to go for a swim at Lake Motosu for a while?" Asked the old man, while stopping at the divergent path.

She turned to him and said, "Yes. It gives me time to reflect on what I have learned today."

Shirou started walking down the path leading to the house and said, "Just don't take too long. You need your rest for more training tomorrow."

The Amazon walked down the opposite path to the lake with a crescent moon starting to rise in the night.

(XWP)

It had been about a candle mark since she had reached the lake. This dip in the lake in which she first appeared in Jappa was becoming a nightly routine for her after practice. She had taken her bath and spent part of the time focusing on the new moves she had learned. When she was finished, put her still sweaty training suit on, reattached her training sword to her waist, and put the bandages back on the scar. The blonde girl had yet to see this mark that kept the bandages on and was interest to know what her face truly looked like now, since Shirou never described that portion of her face. After remembering how the fall went with an analytical mind, it was easy to conclude that the first major hit she took was there. The old man had said that the more damage of in an area the large the scar. This created the assumption in the former bard's mind that the scar was rather large.

At this moment Gabrielle wasn't caring about her scar; her mind was preoccupied with memories of certain warrior woman. The memories were not of the good or bad times, but of a movement that Xena had used many times.

_(Flashback)_

_Xena had just disarmed her current opponent. Quickly, she moved her hands towards the base of the man's neck. Her fingers pressed down on the two spots and the man was immediately in pain. However, he could not make a sound and looked like he was suffocating. His knees crimpled to the floor as the blue-eyed warrior bent over to reach the man's level._

_The brunette said to the man with a grin, "I just cut of the flow of blood to your brain. You'll be dead in thirty seconds if…"_

_(flashback end)_

In the cold mind of the blond, she believed that this technique had been quite useful to her former friend and it could serve her well. This could always be a useful was to interrogate an individual; the time limit gave them a sense of hope that the person could live if they give the answers. If they didn't, the Amazon would not have to give them a second thought and just let them die. If they did, she had the decision to let them live or die in despair of false hope. The bard also knew that it could be extremely helpful in weaponless combat. After replaying every memory of Xena's signature move on her walks back to the house, Gabrielle was certain that she knew the exact spots to hit and how to form her fingures. The only problem was that she had nobody to practice this on and risking Shirou's life was unacceptable with the wealth of knowledge he still held. For now, the former bard would have to wait until she leaves Mount Kenashi for good to attempt the pinch.

She had made it close to home when she saw lights, most likely torches, on the path lead from the house to the main road. There were two torches with what she could tell was lighting the path for five men. The blonde quickened the pace to arrive near the court yard as the quintet of men was entering the spacious area. Using the short wall that surrounded the patio, Gabrielle was able to observe the group undetected. It was plain to see that these men were all natives of Jappa by the complexion of their skin. One of the men looked muscular and acted like the leader of the group. Each member in the group had one sword which meant they most likely came to attack Shirou. The bearded man said that his magical powers had earned him the name of 'Dākumeiji' or 'dark mage' from the local because they feared what he could do. Every so often a few warriors would try to kill him for the glory. Until she knew their intentions the former bard would have to listen to the men as they spoke in the language of Jappa.

"_Are we sure about this, I've heard tales that his illusions can kill a man._" Said the scrawniest of the group.

The leader spoke confidently, "_Nonsense, it is likely that these illusions just surprise people rather than kill them. I'm sure if we get past the initial shock we can definitely reach the dark mage's lair._"

The one with a mustache that drooped to the sides said, "_Don't over estimate youself Ryuusei. I have been here twice before and have experienced these illusions. While they will not kill you, they are still powerful enough to scare someone who is unprepared away._"

"_I can handle it, I have fought served in the emperor's army and helped in many victories against the people of Kor. No little magic trick is going to stand in our way from killing him._" The kingpin spoke proudly.

After a second, the Ryuusei spoke again this time holding up a small necklace, "_Besides Waku, we got these pendants specifically to overcome his powers._"

Gabrielle doubted that the ornaments were able to block the magic that her teacher possessed. It was still the best idea to face these men because they presented chance to test her growth. Also, she felt that she should fight them on the off chance they were right about the pendants. The blonde step out from behind the wall and moved toward the men.

"_I can't let you do that_." The green-eyed woman said in simple Japanese, revealing herself to the group.

All five heads turned towards her as one of the men said, "_Where did she come from_?"

The man named Waku said, "_I don't know, I didn't see her the last time I was here_."

"_Maybe she's one of the dark mage's illusions_?" The weakest man said timidly.

"_Nonsense… Why would he choose girl to frighten us off? Are you so scared that a little woman would send you running?_" The leader said obnoxiously.

Ryuusei spoke to the Amazon and said, "_Run a long, woman. This is no place for you._"

Seeing that most of the group was not taking her seriously she took out her practice sword. All of the men looked a little surprised as they had failed to recognize that she was carrying a sword.

"_I said I can't let you do that. I still have need for him._" Gabrielle said coldly.

One man said, "_Why does she have a sword. No females are allowed to have a sword. It is against the law!_"

The superior spoke loudly, "_You fools she is still just a woman. I doubt she knows how to use it._"

Ryuusei turned to the scrawniest man and said, "_Shun. This is your chance to prove yourself, kill this woman for not obeying her place as a female._"

Giving a steady nod, Shun handed his torch to one of the other men and brandished his sword in an unbalanced fighting stance. He ran towards the former bard in a sloppy looking attack. It took a simple block from the blonde in order to get the man in an unbalanced position. Then she took a horizontal slice, which knocked the man's sword away. She finished the man by taking a left roundhouse kick to Shun's temple causing the man to fall to the floor unconscious.

"_What do we do sir, she beat Shun!_" One man said.

Ryuusei rolled his eyes and said, "_She beat Shun! Any of my mistresses could beat Shun! Just go and fight her!_"

The three men moved towards the bandaged woman and began to wield their swords. The two who were holding the torches tossed them to the ground. When they reached the Amazon, the first man took a diagonal slice on the left side, which was blocked. The other unnamed man tried to stab Gabrielle on her right side while her sword was in a block. Unfortunately for him, the blond knocked the sword out of the way with the back of her right hand and kicked the man in his stomach making him stumble backwards. She then push the man she had her blade locked with and blocked an oncoming slice from Waku.

It didn't take much effort for Gabrielle to see that the two unnamed men had better stances than Shun but had never been truly train. This Waku seemed to have had his fair share of fight and his stance looked more refined in the blonde's eyes.

For a while, the green-eyed warrior was only engaged in combat with the oldest of the group. It was obvious that the man was caught off guard by the fact that the woman's skills surpassed his own. Everything he attempted at her was blocked and he had only landed a few punches on her compared to several that she had landed. The demeanor that the Amazon gave was upsetting the gentleman. Her face never seemed to show any emotions and her eyes looked cold. Waku was becoming discouraged and attempted to finish the girl with a stab aimed for the left shoulder. A block from the former bard left him unbalanced and she slice her sword right through his wind pipe.

The look on the man's face was in disbelief and anguish as he died before he hit the ground. Gabrielle looked at her sword and saw the blood on it. This had been the first person that she had killed since Britannia. Unlike that time, she felt nothing. Her emotions were kept perfectly at bay and had no regret. It is what she had to do.

One of the other two men yelled at the loss of his comrade and rushed her. Easily she ducked his attack and sliced through his torso, ending his life as well. Still she had no emotion from killing this other man. The final unnamed man moved timidly towards the woman, trying to be a bit more careful than his former counterpart. He raised his arm to attack her diagonally, but on his downward motion his wrist was caught by the left hand of the woman. Grabbing his shirt with her free hand, she moved her body closer towards the side of his right arm and swept her right leg causing the man to fall to the ground. The blonde stepped on his chest with her left foot and killed him with stab through his head. There was neither emotional pleasure, displeasure, nor indifference entering the former bard's body after killing the man.

Turning her attention to the leader of the group, she saw the man pulling out his sword with a sour expression to his face.

"_Bunch of idiots! Can't even take care of a lowly woman!_" He shouted moving to attack.

Before engaging him in combat, Gabrielle already could tell that this man was the best out of the five she had faced. The fight with him was tougher than the other four every attack he made had more force and precision. He was even landing more punches and kicks than the other did. At one point he sliced the bandage covering her scar causing it to fall. This did not cause any doubt about her chances of victory in the mind of the green-eyed warrior as his skill was less than her and he was overconfident, which allowed her to make lots of cuts and bruises on the man's body. Every time she hit him he got angrier and more reckless.

After fighting him for several minutes, she skillfully knocked his sword out his hands. He countered her with a punch to the face which broke her nose giving him the time to kick her sword away. Gabrielle pinched on her nose and adjusted it into its former position. Blood was starting to trickle out of her nostrils and down to her lips. She then turned around to block the muscular man's next kick and returned the favor by hitting his side. The anger of Ryuusei caused him to throw another reckless punch, which was blocked. Then the blonde saw her opening and pushed the man's arm away exposing his neck.

Quickly, she formed both hands into strike positions and hit her fingers at two points on the base of his neck. The face of the man changed to a combination of pain and suffocation. He crumpled to the ground, beaten. Although the former bard knew that she had successfully delivered the pinch for the first time in her life, she felt nothing. There was no pride or thoughts of satisfaction that she had learned the move without Xena's help. The only thoughts that ran through her head were acknowledgement that she had a new move that was added to her skill set.

She stood over the now frightened man and said emotionlessly, "I have just cut off the flow of blood to your brain. You will be dead in thirty seconds… Enjoy them."

The emotionless woman turned and started walking to the man she knocked unconscious at the beginning of the fighting. No emotions came to her head after hearing the Ryuusei took his last breath at the end of the thirty seconds. She knew that he was not the first or last she would kill.

(XWP)

A half a candle mark ago the old man had heard the chatter of a group of men who had undoubtedly come to kill him. Shirou was waiting for them to come inside to perform he dark illusions on them. Instead, he heard sword clashing and punches making him assume that a fight had broken out. This continued for the next half candle mark until it finally stop. The lack of noise got him curious and move from his room towards the court yard.

When he got outside he was a little stunned at the sight that he saw. There were four men lying dead across the patio in different fashions. In the middle of the space was his student standing behind a kneeling man who looked weaker than the rest. She had her sword wielded with the tip at his back.

"Sensei," The blonde warrior said plainly, "These men were coming to kill you and I took care of them. This is the only one left. What would you like me to do with him?"

The old man felt a sense of pride for his student being able to kill these men and obviously have no emotions about it. This meant her emotional control was at a strong level. Now, he would just have to see how far he could push.

"Kill him." Shirou said decisively.

The Amazon looked at her teach and questioned, "Why should I? He's unarmed and couldn't possibly be a threat to me."

"Let's say you let him go because he is currently unarmed; now there is a good chance that he won't become a problem for you at all. However, he could become a problem for you in several ways. One, he could get stronger to face you later on in vengeance of his fallen comrades. If he is skilled enough, he would deter your chances at completing your goals. Two, he has seen what you look like and could eventually tell others. Rumors may spread and eventually reach Xena's ears that a girl matching the description of Gabrielle, a woman she thought she killed, was alive. This instigates her to search you out and you would end up facing her before you're ready. There are other scenarios in which he becomes a problem… but my point is that you never leave a mess, even the tiniest of ones. For, they could become even larger and harder to control." The bearded man said.

After saying this to his student, he didn't believe that she was in control of her emotions enough to kill this scrawny man. He would personally have to kill the man himself when she failed to complete his order.

Suddenly, there was a blade coming out the weak man's chest. The blade retracted through the chest and the man fell dead. Shirou was stunned and darkly pleased at the image he was seeing. The former bard had slain a defenseless man with no emotional recoil appearing on her face. A crescent moon was hanging behind Gabrielle's head. He realized that the bandage was no longer covering up her scar, which looked oddly like the shape of the lunar object. Then it finally hit him.

A grin formed on his face as he said, "My student, I have the perfect name for you. This name shall strike fear into the heart of man across all land and nations when it is spoken."

She looked at him waiting for his answer.

"From this day on your name is no longer Gabrielle. You shall be called Tsuki Kizuato Senshi…which means 'The Moon Scar Warrior'. After the shape of the mark which adorns you face." The old man said dramatically.

Bringing her hand up to touch the scar for the first time, her touch felt the arc that went from the center of her right cheek bone to right over the center of her right eye-brow ridge. Widening at the center of the crescent.

"Then it shall be." Tsuki stated.

The woman was turning out to be everything he had hoped for. She would become the perfect vessel for him.

**AN: Annnnnd break… This was incredibly long chapter to write with loads of exposition and thought process. I enjoyed writing Tsuki's fight scene and showing her growing skills. **

**I am increadibly sorry for the tardiness of this chapter. Unfortunately, I cannot give you a great explanation other than 'life happens'. I also have to let you know that the next chapter will come up in August sometime as July is going to become the month of hell for me. Please do not be alarmed, I have only begun the story. It might still be possible that a chapter could appear during the remainder of this month.**

**I have a question for you all; in the prior chapter I talked about Tsuki and Livia/Eve's first encounter. Would you eventually like me to write about that as an actual chapter? It would be a while before we reach that point in the past but you still might want me to write the dialog.**

**Thanks again for all your support.**

**Thank you** **AtlantisRises, jelpy0165, Jinxie2013, ivo1617, Ahkiken, Kichuki, Rowan, Friendly Advice, Fluval66, Leonie1988, crvenashkorpija, J-Mith, nannygirl, Rox5755, K, and any Guests; for the reviews. They are always appreciated.**

**I always welcome any reviews (it helps out a lot).**

**Thanks to all who follow, favorite, or just read this story.**

**Keep on reading,**

**Der Schatten**


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